A king penguin, likely from a large colony on Tasmanian State Reserve Macquarie Island, visited the beach at Fortrose Spit, in Southland.
Department of Conservation Murihiku operations manager John McCarroll said king penguins were fairly rare visitors to mainland New Zealand, but were probably annual visitors to New Zealand’s subantarctic islands.
The birds most likely came up from the large colony on Macquarie Island.
Photo: Giverny Forbes
It was important to keep dogs away from the bird, and also for visitors to avoid getting too close, so that it was not being constantly disturbed, Mr McCarroll said.
Given the penguin appeared to be healthy, it would eventually head back to sea.
There was no reason to expect more of them to show up. They were a cold-water species and typically fed at sea far south of New Zealand, he said.
