27 Jun 2017

A Christchurch girl’s school project on endangered species will see some lucky penguins nesting inside a cosy, purpose built penguin nesting box this spring.

Nine-year-old Isla Cook, from Hillview Christian School, turned her school project into a conservation reality this month, placing her home made penguin nesting box on site at Harris Bay, near Taylor’s Mistake.

‘We were doing an “Endangered Species” topic at school and we had to research an endangered animal and make a diorama of its habitat …We then had the option of writing an action plan to help save the animal.   I  chose the White Flippered Penguin because it lives close to us so I could actually do something. We found out you could sponsor a penguin nesting box on Quail Island but that cost $500 so I persuaded Dad to help me build one.”

Nine year old Isla Cook and Council Ranger Kenny Rose

Nine year old Isla Cook and Council Ranger Kenny Rose place her penguin nesting box at Harris Bay.

After some home handy-work, the box was ready to go and Isla emailed the Department of Conservation to get advice on where she could put it. They put her in touch with Christchurch City Council Ranger Kenny Rose and the pair worked together to put the nesting box in place.

“Kenny said the box was needed in the penguin colony by the pine trees at Harris Bay so that is where it went. Kenny had a cool backpack thing which we could put the nesting box on and then we all helped carry it from Taylors Mistake to the little bay.

“We dug out a bit of the hill and had to lever out all sorts of rocks. Then we put the box in place and chose a nice view for the penguin and then covered the box with big stones and rocks and earth to keep the penguin safe and make it look like part of the hill. Kenny showed us a trap nearby which had a dead rat in it. My brother thought that was pretty cool!”

The Harris Bay colony has around 65 breeding pairs that produce between 80 and 90 chicks each season.

The Predator Control programme run by Council rangers has around 28 traps in the area, and no penguins have been found preyed on in Harris Bay since 2002.

Council Ranger Kenny Rose said Isla’s project was a fantastic initiative for someone so young, and he looked forward to seeing the nesting box become home to a penguin.

“It’s so great to see kids taking the initiative to do conservation and wildlife projects. As rangers, that is so wonderful to see, so we were more than happy to help Isla complete her project and get the penguin nesting box installed. We now have enough nesting boxes at the site, so this was a great one off project to help Isla and raise her awareness of the white flippered penguins.”

Isla plans to revisit the nesting box site in the future and hopefully plant some Ngaio on it to make it look nice.