17 Jul 2019

Tunnels help little penguins navigate safely to nest areas

From First Up, 5:53 am on 17 July 2019

Now, as you heard earlier in the programme, our little blue penguin or Korora, could put themselves at risk crossing Wellington's roads. The penguins have made worldwide headlines in the past few days after taking up residence at a Wellington sushi stand. One very well known population of Korora is on the South Island's east coast - specifically at the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony, where the world's smallest penguin abides in close proximity to humans. In fact, they're considered so precious, the community built the world's first wildlife underpass- a tunnel to protect the birds from being run over. Dr Philippa Agnew is the science and environmental manager for the Oamaru Blue Penguin colony and joins me now.