Little blue penguin with badly injured wing rescued in Wellington Harbour

Wednesday, 10 January 2018

The injured penguin in the water near Queens Wharf in Wellington on Tuesday.

It took all afternoon, but the SPCA has successfully rescued a little blue penguin with a badly damaged wing from Wellington Harbour.

A dedicated team from the SPCA National Rescue Unit was called to the Wellington waterfront about midday on Tuesday to assist the injured bird.

The bird had sustained a badly injured wing and was rescued from Wellington Harbour after a five-hour effort by the SPCA.

It took them until 5pm to finally catch it.

'The bird was quite severely injured – one of its wings quite badly damaged,' general manager for SPCA central region Rosalind Alsford said.

The penguin is finally netted, and pulled to safety, the cheers from onlookers.

Initially the team tried to rescue the penguin, which was in the water just in front of Dockside Restaurant on Queens Wharf, by boat.

'[They] took out their boat and tried to rescue on the water at 12pm,' Alsford said.

But due to the bird's badly injured wing and the tide, it kept bobbing away from them.

'They spent the afternoon strategising and tried to figure out how to rescue it.'

Eventually they spread across two teams, one on land and one in the water, and managed to scoop it up in a net to rapturous applause from onlookers, about 5pm.

The dramatic rescue was captured on video by a visiting tourist.

The penguin was taken to the SPCA veterinary hospital, where it was treated overnight and has since been relocated to Wellington Zoo, which can provide specialised care.

The Department of Conservation was also called by members of the public about the injured bird.

However, it decided not to get involved, senior biodiversity ranger Brent Tandy said.

'When DOC received calls from the public, we consulted with penguin rehabilitation expert, assessed the situation and decided not to interfere.

'At the time, we believed the stress of being captured was too risky for the bird – sea birds (and little penguins in particular) are extremely susceptible to stress, which can lead to organ failure.

'As the bird was still swimming, it would have dived repeatedly to avoid capture, exhausting it and leaving it weak.

'It can be a hard call to leave an injured animal, and in this case a different decision was ultimately made. The result is that the bird is now in expert care at Wellington Zoo, where we hope it fully recovers.'

James Myers, who took photos of the penguin, said he had spotted it swimming in the area the day before, when he was walking past.

He said the SPCA had been working hard all day to finally get hold of the bird.

Watching the SPCA rescue a little blue penguin on my walk home today. pic.twitter.com/nuyP9fRFnz

— KingSara (@KingSara) January 9, 2018