Penguins
Six species of penguins breed in New Zealand: blue, rockhopper, yellow-eyed, erect-crested, Fiordland crested, and Snares crested penguins. The blue penguin is the most common. Penguins are difficult to see from fishing vessels, and bird count data presented here are not an appropriate index of abundance for these species. However, observer sightings provide some distribution information.
Mean number of penguins recorded around fishing vessels during counts carried out by government observers, binned to 0.4 degree of longitude and latitude. The size of the circle indicates the number of observations, whereas the colour indicates the mean number of birds recorded during counts. Empty circles indicate that no birds were observed. The grey areas indicate water depths of less than 1000 m.
| Data | Mean count |
|---|---|
| All data | 0.012 |
| Spring | 0.006 |
| Summer | 0.019 |
| Autumn | 0.006 |
| Winter | 0.007 |
| 2009 | 0.023 |
| 2010 | 0.045 |
| 2011 | 0.000 |
| 2012 | 0.015 |
| 2013 | 0.013 |
| 2014 | 0.014 |
| 2015 | 0.002 |
| 2016 | 0.006 |
| 2017 | 0.002 |
| 2018 | 0.001 |
| 2019 | 0.003 |
| 2020 | 0.004 |
| 2021 | 0.002 |
| 2022 | 0.004 |
