Dogs savage precious blue penguin colony

DEIDRE MUSSEN

PREDATOR STRIKE: West Coast Blue Penguin Trust ranger Reuben Lane, left, and Scott Freeman of the Conservation Department with 15 penguins killed by dogs at Cape Foulwind on the West Coast.

Roaming dogs have annihilated a blue penguin colony at Cape Foulwind on the West Coast.
West Coast Blue Penguin Trust ranger Reuben Lane said 15 dead penguins had been found since last Thursday near the lighthouse end of the coastal track.

A veterinarian confirmed dogs killed the first five, which had bite wounds to the head, neck and upper body.

Autopsies would be done to confirm the cause of death.

After hearing about six deaths last week, Lane visited the colony on Tuesday and was shocked to find another eight victims. One more was found yesterday.

"There's something pathetic and tragic about these little birds lying there just dead. These penguins have a charismatic innocence about them. It's really sad," he said.

"I've been predator trapping out there for five years. It's going to take years and years to replace these birds."

He found dog prints but no sign of humans around the dead birds and believed one or two dogs were responsible, probably on a killing spree one night last week.

"People forget dogs are large predators. Just because it sits next to your fire and eats dog biscuits doesn't mean it isn't like that."

He said it was likely the entire colony had been wiped out.

The site was only a kilometre from a proposed free public viewing area, which the trust had spent a year working on. The area would allow people to watch penguins returning to their burrows at dusk.
Trust chairwoman Kerry-Jayne Wilson said she was "absolutely devastated" by the deaths. "We have put a lot of our time, resources and money in to build up the population at Cape Foulwind and this has set us back years."

The Conservation Department's Buller acting biodiversity programme manager, Scott Freeman, said efforts to find the dogs had been unsuccessful.

Under the Dog Control Act, the owner of a dog that attacks or kills wildlife can be fined up to $3000 and the dog can be destroyed.

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More little blue penguin deaths

By Keira Stephenson of the Westport News

Thursday Jun 28, 2012

It's thought the little blue penguins have been killed by dogs. If found the dogs could be destroyed

Another nine little blue penguins have been found dead on a West Coast beach, bringing the total number of deaths there in less than a week to 15.
Last Friday six were found at Cape Foulwind.
All are believed to have been killed by dogs.

If found, the dog owner faces up to three years in prison and/or a $20,000 fine and the dog could be destroyed.

The Department of Conservation (DoC), West Coast Blue Penguin Trust and Buller District Council have combined to try to find the culprits and have been door knocking in Cape Foulwind asking residents for help.

Penguin Trust ranger Reuben Lane said the dogs responsible should be shot.
He said some Cape Foulwind/Omau residents had provided helpful information on wandering dogs, but it would be extremely hard to prove which had killed the penguins.

Neither DOC, council nor the penguin trust had the financial resources for a forensic investigation.
Mr Lane said he found the latest dead penguins all over the beach and in the bush yesterday afternoon at Siberia Bay. The carcasses were surrounded by dog pawprints.

Both he and the vet who had examined the penguins were certain they had been killed by dogs.
Some of the penguins were just metres from their burrows and had almost made it to safety. They waited until dark to come ashore en masse to avoid their natural predators. They wouldn't have stood a chance against dogs and it was likely the dogs had got every last one.

Fifteen adult penguins represented a significant breeding colony.
Some of the largest colonies on the Coast had only 20 burrows.

The West Coast was a harsh place for penguins to survive, without dog attacks.
So many adult deaths was "a bloody tragedy."

Only about 50 per cent of chicks reached adulthood, so one adult penguin was worth about six chicks. "They're feisty little birds, but no match for a dog. It's naive to think you could have a dog and let it do what it likes and this won't happen."

The penguin breeding season was about to begin.
He hoped the dog owners were merely grossly negligent, rather than complicit in the penguin deaths.
Farmers had no compunction about shooting dogs on their property and neither should the public if they saw untagged dogs wandering free, said Mr Lane. At the very least they should call dog control.
He suggested bird aversion courses to stop dogs attacking birds.

Despite the setback the trust would carry on with its work.
DOC's Buller area manager Bob Dickson said penguin massacres, all by dogs, had happened in the Cape Foulwind area over a number of years.

More coastal housing developments brought more dogs, he said. They should not be allowed to run free, especially at night when birds were returning to their nests.

The area was highly valued by both locals and visitors and DOC and the penguin trust had put a lot of time and resources into the area, including predator control.

The work was pointless if it was going to be under threat from renegade dog owners.
"If the penguin trust wants to proceed with its work in the area, it needs to have trust that all its work won't be undone."

Mr Dickson would not say if DOC would be calling for a ban on dogs in any new coastal subdivisions. The problem was irresponsible owners, not responsible ones, he said.
In general, he believed awareness around protecting weka and penguins was growing.

He wasn't interested in DOC providing bird aversion courses.
Buller District Council compliance team leader Atila de Oliveira said council would give DOC 100 per cent support to find the culprits.

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