Oamaru Penguin Symposium
PROGRAMME.
Thursday 1st
08:30 – 09:00 Registration – Ink Box Theatrette, Ōamaru Opera House
09:00 Welcome
09:05 – 09:25 The OPERA; where we have been, where we are going
Jerad Haldan
09:25 – 09:45 New Zealand Penguin Initiative Kororā National Monitoring Programme- 2025 Update
Melissa McLuskie
09:45 – 10:05 Love Our Little Blues - TASMAN BAY BLUE PENGUIN TRUST
Mana Stratton & Linda Jenkins
10:05 – 10:25 Kororā: The Heart of Our Kaupapa – Building Safely with Taiao and Hauora in Mind
Leigh Bull & Charlie Rudd
10:25 – 11:05 Morning tea
11:05 – 11:25 Band recoveries of kororā/little penguin marked on Matiu / Somes Island from 2004 to the 2025.
Geoff de Lisle
11:25 – 11:45 Comparing the use of flipper bands vs pit tags for marking kororā at Ōamaru.
Philippa Agnew
11:45 – 12:05 Tracking Counts
Richard Gardner
12:05 – 12:25 Penguin Tech 1.0 - Building a remote dog detection system
Richard Wright
12:25 – 13:25 Lunch
13:25 – 13:45 An investigation of ticks, Ixodes eudyptidis in the nest boxes of breeding and moulting kororā / little penguins on Matiu / Somes Island
Dallas Bishop
13:45 – 14:05 Assessing tick abundance at kororā (Eudyptula minor) nest boxes.
Chris Niebuhr
14:05 – 14:25 Stress response development in kororā chicks
Shelley Ogle
14:25 – 14:45 Improving previously used sexing methods for the white flippered kororā morph
Lucy Howell
14:45 – 15:25 Afternoon Tea
15:25 – 15:45 Diving behaviour of little penguins at Ōamaru
Henry Elsom
15:45 – 16:05 What really happens out at sea? Insights from a little penguin video logger
Beth Tremlett
16:05 – 16:25 Foraging ecology of kororā from Pōhatu Bay, Banks Peninsula, New Zealand
Kaitlin Bowe
16:25 – 16:45 New Zealand Penguin Initiative: Kororā diet from scat DNA – some initial results
Hiltrun Ratz
17:15 – 18:30 Field trip to Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony
18:30 – onwards Dinner: Loan and Merc Building
Friday 2nd -
08:30 – 08:50 A journey to the ice to track marine predators in the Southern Ocean
Rachel Hickcox
08:50 – 09:10 A subantarctic cruise - a scientist’s dilemma
Bryony Alden
09:10 – 09:30 A tale of two islands - divergent trajectories of the Erect-crested penguin’s world population
Thomas Mattern
09:30 – 09:45 Penguin microchipping: Should I, May I, Can I?
Michelle Bradshaw
09:45 – 10:25 Workshop discussion: Q&A session
10:25 – 11:05 Morning tea
11:05 – 11:25 The OPERA rehabilitation
Jason van Zanten
11:25 – 11:45 Blue cod, red herring? Investigating the declining diet quality theory for mainland hoiho
Mel Young
11:45 - 12:05 A birds-eye view into the diet of hoiho in their subantarctic range
Thor T. Ruru
12:05 – 12:25 Genomics: Uncovering disease causes and risks in hoiho chicks
Janelle Wieranga
12:25 – 12:45 Some prions turn twenty-five
Graeme Loh
12:45 – 13:35 Lunch
13:35 – 13:55 Humboldt penguins - title tbc
Ursula Ellenberg
13:55 – 14:15 Correction factors for prey size estimation from PenguCams
Owen Dabkowski
14:15 – 14:35 The foraging ecology of tawaki in Dusky Sound, Fiordland
Finn Stoneman
14:35 – 14:55 Tawaki nest monitoring at Gorge River 2014-24
Catherine Stewart
14:55 - 15:00 Closing