Data shows the number of known yellow-eyed penguin nests has dropped by 80% over the past 15 years, with the Department of Conservation saying the penguin could be extinct within two decades.
The Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust general manager Anna Campbell told RNZ today the survival rate of chicks this season was low.
"There's less than a hundred chicks, and I can count on one hand how many of those chicks are likely to become parents," she said.
"Ultimately the big problem is, when we fledge those hundred chicks at the end of the season, coming up in a couple of weeks, they don't have a very good chance of survival at sea, and that's because of mass malnutrition we are seeing due to a number of factors."
Campbell said one of those factors was human interference which could involve overfishing, destruction of habitat, as well as driving on the beaches where the hoiho were nesting.
Yellow-eyed penguins forage across the beach, and the Department of Conservation has been circulating notices to warn the public about the activity of the penguins each summer.
"The fish that the hoiho like to feed on just aren't there. There's a breakdown in their food web and there's been a number of studies done on return rates, on conditions, and what we are seeing, is because of intervention from humans, from fisheries, even all the way to climate change and marine heatwaves. All of these things are impacting our populations," Campbell said.
"There's some statistics that show around 20% will come back from sea. That's because they are heading out, they can't find their food, they can't forage."
Mass disease is also an issue, and this season respiratory distress syndrome is causing a number of issues, including deformities.
The hoiho mate for life, which makes it vitally important that a male and a female can find each other and create a nest to raise chicks season after season to help the species survive.
"Wildlife is the backbone of our national identity and it's so important that every single person in this country supports wildlife and protects it and understands it and is educated about it."
