A yellow-eyed penguin found sick and underweight in the Catlins last month has been returned to the wild after recovering in Penguin Place on Otago Peninsula.
The Department of Conservation was alerted to the penguin by members of the public at the end of May.
It was taken from a beach near the Nuggets in the Catlins to the Penguin Place rehabilitation facility near Dunedin.
University of Otago PhD student Mel Young returned the bird to its nesting home yesterday.
Ms Young said the penguin was close to death when found. It was severely underweight at 3kg, dehydrated and still moulting.
"When they’re like that, that’s it. They’re done."
Thanks to the locals who spotted the sick bird, it was able to receive prompt treatment. It weighed a healthy 6kg when it was returned to Roaring Bay, near Nugget Point.
Ms Young had extracted about 25 penguins from the wild for treatment but this was the first time she had been able to return one of them back to where it belonged.
She was studying the penguins and what was causing the decline in population.
More female than male penguins were rescued and in need of treatment, she said. It was part of her study to work out why that might be.
Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust volunteer Juliette Parsons said the Penguin Place health centre was a necessity for locally injured penguins.
As it was only a two-hour drive away, it was more convenient than the alternative, Massey University in Palmerston North.
Mrs Parsons is involved with several aspects of helping the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust, including transporting penguins to and from Penguin Place.
