Pests reduced, penguins thrive

THRIVING: White flippered penguins are flourishing in Banks Peninsula.

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White-flippered penguins are flourishing in a small area of Banks Peninsula thanks to a predator-trapping programme.

In two years, the programme at Le Bons Bay has removed 285 hedgehogs, 83 rats, 61 possums, 37 feral cats, 24 weasels, 16 stoats, 10 ferrets and nine mice.

Nine pairs of penguins have been recorded in the areawhere the birds were wiped out in the 1990s.

White-flippered penguins are unique to Canterbury and are more endangered than the better-known yellow-eyed penguins.

Conservationist Robin Burleigh said the traplines were helping other native species recover. "It takes consistently at least five years before the real impact of this work comes through," he said.

The programme is a partnership between Burleigh, John Stuart, the Department of Conservation and the Le Bons Bay enviro-school, with funding from the International Antarctic Centre. The centre has donated $21,300 from car-parking fees over two years.

The team hopes to extend the programme in the next year.

- © Fairfax NZ News