The hoiho, which means ‘noise shouter’, triumphed in a year free from the usual scandals surrounding the competition
One of the world’s rarest penguins has been crowned New Zealand’s bird of the year, in an unusually sedate year for the competition, free from the foreign interference and voting scandals of previous events.
The endangered yellow-eyed penguin, or hoiho, is the largest of New Zealand’s mainland penguin species and is distinctive for the pale yellow band of feathers linking the eyes.
The hoiho, meaning “noise shouter” in Māori due to its shrill call, lives along parts of the South Island’s east coast and in the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands. The shy, fishy-smelling species tends to live in native coastal forests, scrub or dense flax.
There are believed to be roughly just 4,000 to 5,000 left in the world, according to the department of conservation, and its numbers are declining. The number of mainland breeding birds has dropped by 78% over the last 15 years – including an 18% dip over just the last year alone, says the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust.
“This spotlight couldn’t have come at a better time,” said Nicola Toki, chief executive of Forest & Bird, the environmental organisation that runs the annual competition.
“This iconic penguin is disappearing from mainland Aotearoa [New Zealand] before our eyes.
