Penguin Experience: Raeanne says...

Experiencing little blue penguins (Korora) in North Taranaki

60 Springs is offering a 3-day penguin workshop involving 8 students (Year 9 -11) selected from around Taranaki, New Zealand. The workshop will involve a variety of presentations, activities, problem solving and an overnight stay at a local beach.

Students will get to work with Philippa Agnew (marine biologist from Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony), Jenny Lynch (Places for Penguins, Wellington), Mark Meyburg (RSNZ teacher fellow) Elise Smith and Barbara Hammonds (Nga Motu Marine Reserve Society).

This blog will follow the students over the 3 days providing updates of what they get up to on their penguin experience starting 14th July 2010.

Photos: Mark Meyburg; Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Raeanne says...

Day 1 – 14/7/10

The penguin experience was so cool. One of my favorite parts was using tracking tunnels. It was very simple all we did was fitted them together to make rectangular tunnels. We used some special card that had ink in the middle. For bait we could have used ham, but we used peanut butter, we put a little bit on one side of the ink then slid the card into the tunnels. The nine tunnels were spread throughout the campsite, and left for the night. The purpose of leaving them out for the night was to see if we could pick up footprints belonging to small mammals. When we checked the tunnels only two had clear footprints. They were from some mice( The reason we think only two had clear footprints is because of the position of the tunnels and the temperature.

Raeanne Boschat

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HOW ORGANISATIONS CAN HELP!

Penguin squad suggestions:

1) Put penguin/ shorebird signs up (e.g. Raising awareness that penguins live in the area) in areas where penguins are known to live
2) Put signs up making dog walkers aware that dogs must be on leads or not allowed
3) Hand our leaflets on popular walkways educating the public about risks to shorebirds (including penguins) and how to help
4) Paint Penguinestrians across walkways (a path of penguin footprints)
5) Give out free dog leashes to unleashed dogs on walkways (a positive inititive used successfully in wellington)
6) hold public penguin box building days
7) Use radio, TV and newspapper to raise the profile of issues affecting shorebirds along the coast
8) Gather/ help make sure penguins nesting areas are identified, recorded and protected

COMMENT FROM PENGUIN EXPERIENCE EDUCATOR

Penguin Experience has been a huge success. The Daily News, Midweek, Okato and Fitzroy TOM newspapers have all run stories on the project. Forest and Bird magazine are also due to release a story in the upcoming magazine.

The grestest success however is the contribution the project has had in changing the dog bylaws. The number of bylaw submissions made was the highest of all bylaws under review. The result now means penguins have much better protection along our coastline. A HUGE BONUS!

Pengion Experience 2 is confirmed for October 13-15th, 2011. Applications are now open to Year 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 students living in Taranaki. Only 10 students will be selected based on all applicaiton forms received.