When Waitati resident Clive Trotman went to do some weeding in his garden earlier this week, he heard a "penetrating, ear-splitting shriek" and thought some unearthly creature may have been lurking in his bushes.
He later found out the ruckus was actually from a Fiordland crested penguin — an animal that residents in the Dunedin area and has been seen more of late.
"I'm not easily shaken, but I must say, I reeled backwards, thinking it was going to be something about the size of a mountain lion or a whale or something.
"I hadn't the slightest idea what it was.
He said he had never heard such a noise.
"I looked down and there was this grotty-looking individual.
"It didn't look terribly happy.
"It sort of flopped out on a stone and I thought it was very vulnerable."
So the Department of Conservation (Doc) was called and the moulting penguin was later collected by a staff member and taken to the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital for treatment.
Dunedin Wildlife Hospital manager Jordana Whyte said the penguin was one of many crested penguins that were being brought in from Dunedin beach areas at the moment.
While it was not rare to see one on the east coast, she believed it was very unusual to be seeing so many.
Their breeding grounds are more commonly found along the southwestern coast of the South Island, as well as on Rakiura/Stewart Island and its outlying islands.
She said about a dozen Fiordland crested, erect-crested and Snares crested penguins had been brought to the hospital for treatment last year.
"This year, we’ve had more than 20, and we're only in March.
"It's been a record year for all of them.
"We aren't seeing any really bad starvation cases.
"Some of them are quite underweight and need a little bit of help, but it isn't what we would expect if it was a bad food year, because we would see a lot more of those seabird species coming in — not just penguins."
She said staff did not know why so many were appearing on beaches in the Dunedin area.
Global Penguin Society Oceania representative and Tawaki Project co-leader Thomas Mattern has been conducting a long-term study of Fiordland crested penguins.
He believed there had not been a major increase in the numbers in the Dunedin area.
Rather, it was a case of residents being more observant and vigilant.
"It is perfectly normal for these birds to show up on the east coast because we're in the moulting period."
He said the penguins, especially young ones that were not yet ready for breeding, roamed widely around the Southern Ocean.
"And wherever they are in the oceans, when their hormones tell them, ‘hey, I need to make landfall to change my feathers’ they come ashore.
"That’s why they show up on our coast here.
"So we have mostly young birds."
He said most of the time, we never hear about it because it happens on a Subantarctic Island or a remote beach.
"But they can end up in public places and they are the ones that get reported.
"In some years, they're more visible because some of the birds decide to moult in very public places — like the erect crested penguin we had at the St Clair saltwater pool a few weeks back.
"That had to be moved because it was in such a public place."
He said in recent years, people had become more aware about the plight of penguins, particularly due to the demise of the hoiho yellow-eyed penguin on our shores.
"I think people themselves have become more vigilant, and when they see a penguin, they report it to Doc.
"And if a penguin is reported to Doc, it's more likely than not going to end up at the wildlife hospital — at least for a check-up, because otherwise people would accuse Doc of not doing anything.
"So I think it could be that people are just more aware."
