January 9, 2025 – Who doesn’t love penguins? With their adorable “tuxedos”, wobbly gait and amazing swimming prowess, penguins are perennial animal favorites. Here at the Foundation, we’ve been interested in keeping these iconic birds’ healthy since funding our first study in 2000. Our investment has been especially impactful in helping save the endangered yellow-eyed penguin, also known as the hoiho.
Before we dive into the hoiho story, let’s review our work to improve penguin health.
Not surprisingly, one of the biggest challenges facing penguins around the world is climate change. Other threats include habitat destruction, food scarcity, introduced predators and infectious diseases, including avian influenza. Unfortunately, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reports that of the 18 species of penguins, 11 are listed as threatened. This serious decline has had ripple effects throughout the habitats occupied by these amazing birds.
Since 2000, the Foundation has funded several studies focused on all aspects of penguin health, in penguins from across the Southern Hemisphere:
- We funded a study looking at antibiotic therapy in penguins, tick-borne diseases in African penguins and vaccine development to help birds affected by malaria.
- One of our current studies is a student project looking into how walking surfaces affect foot pad loading in Magellanic penguins kept in rescues or conservation populations.
- But one of our most impactful active projects involves one of the most unusual members of the penguin family – the hoiho. Read more below!
A Big Win for the Yellow-Eyed Penguin (Hoiho)
There’s no mistaking New Zealand’s yellow-eyed penguin, locally known as the hoiho. The distinctive bird – a tall, heavy penguin – is easily identified by its pale yellow band of uncrested feathers passing across its nape and around the eyes.
Unfortunately, the hoiho also is critically endangered and the most rare penguin in the world. Only an estimated 2,000 nesting pairs remain in the wild, a population decrease of 50% in just a few decades.
While habitat loss, climate change and other factors are contributing to this downward trend, New Zealand researchers from Massey University are focusing their efforts on improving chick survival – key to helping the population rebound.
“We are investigating two diseases that affect pre-fledgling chicks,” said Dr. Janelle Wierenga, postdoctoral fellow at Massey University and recipient of a Fellowship Training grant from Morris Animal Foundation. “One condition called neonatal respiratory distress (RDS) causes severe lung disease in the chicks. The other, diphtheritic stomatitis (DS), causes debilitating sores in their mouths, making it difficult for the chicks to feed and eventually breathe.”
Research teams closely monitor the nests – no easy feat. Yellow-eyed penguins like nesting in secure locations up cliffs, hills and sand dunes, making it nearly impossible to access them in muddy conditions. To make matters worse, the penguins like to nest near stinging nettle – a plant that, upon touch, makes the skin itchy, red and swollen – yikes!
But, this doesn’t deter researchers who visit the nests every few days to check on the chicks’ health and take samples back to the lab to analyze. Very ill chicks are taken to care facilities.
In 2020, more than half of the mainland population of chicks was affected by DS and 30% perished from the disease. RDS was responsible for additional 44% of the chicks lost in the 2020/21 breeding season.
The team’s hard work paid off.
Dr. Wierenga and her team discovered two new viruses linked with DS (yellow-eyed penguin megrivirus) and RDS (yellow-eyed penguin gyrovirus). Identification of the agents responsible for disease is a huge step toward treatment and possibly even vaccine development. The team received another grant from the Foundation to further explore their findings. The next steps in our research are crucial. We need to determine how common these viruses are in the yellow-eyed penguin population, explore other potential causes of disease in these penguins, check if these viruses are present in other species or the penguins' environment, and most importantly, confirm whether these viruses are the actual causes of the diseases. Continuing this research is vital because it will provide more evidence about what's causing these devastating diseases in yellow-eyed penguins. This knowledge can help wildlife managers develop strategies to protect these endangered birds and prevent their extinction.
Dr. Wierenga anticipates completing this project in mid-2025. Their findings could not only help keep the hoiho from extinction but could also apply to other endangered birds.
Science to Save Animals Starts with YOU!
Innovative animal health research takes vision as well as financial investment. That’s why Morris Animal Foundation, with the generous support of our donors, continues to fund this important work to change the odds for animals suffering from diseases and painful health conditions. DONATE TODAY and support critical science to save the animals you love!