Leseverstehen

The Penguin Rescue Rehabilitation Centre

The following article is about an animal protection organisation at Katiki Point, a lonely beach on South Island, New Zealand.

We, the volunteers at the Penguin Rescue Rehabilitation Centre at Katiki Point,

New Zealand, have been caring for penguins for over 20 years, assisting sick,

injured and starving individuals to get back on their feet through intensive

care. In fact, the yellow-eyed penguin colony at Katiki Point was founded by

one of the first patients around 1990. At that time, Diesel Dick was a young

bird that got diesel on his feathers and needed to be cleaned – that’s how he got

his name. After his successful release, he returned and found a partner called

Sweetpea; they were the first pair to settle at Katiki Point. They lived together

for many years, producing many chicks that also returned to breed here.

They are our founding couple.

We are trying to give every penguin a chance to get better so that they can join

the breeding population and therefore help raise the worrying numbers of

penguins. That’s important because South Island has only about 900 endan-

gered yellow-eyed penguins, 20 % of which live at Katiki Point.

Our volunteers encourage locals to report any penguins found in places where

they may be harmed by dogs or people. They can ring the Penguin Rescue

phone number, and a volunteer will pick up the penguin. If it is sick, injured

or starving, it will be rehabilitated and then released in the breeding colony. If

it does not need care, it is released right away.

Penguins are brought to our centre mainly for two reasons:

1. Lack of food can affect adults and young penguins and is the most common

reason why a penguin is in the rehabilitation centre. Some penguin parents

have difficulties feeding their chick(s) at the end of the chick-raising period

due to a lack of food. These chicks are taken from the parents to make it

easier for them and to give chicks the best possible chance of survival.

2. Another reason why a lot of penguins come to Penguin Rescue is that they

have been bitten by large fish at sea. The animal is put into the hospital

where it has its own nest box but can see and hear its neighbours: They

recover much better when they have some penguin company. They remain

in small groups in larger garden areas until they are fit for release.

Food is a vital part of the recovery programme. The preferred food for the

penguins in the rehabilitation centre is salmon, about 20 cm long and weigh-

ing 100 –150 g each. The penguins are fed twice a day with about 400 g of

salmon at each meal. If they had the chance, they would eat more. But they

don’t get much exercise in the centre, so the volunteers make sure the penguins

don’t get too much to eat.

Tick the correct box and give one piece of evidence writing down short passages from the text. Do not write line numbers.

The main aim of the Penguin Rescue Rehabilitation Centre is to …

a)		support hurt or weak penguins.
b)		educate the public about penguins.
c)		find new places for penguins to live.