{"id":11454,"date":"2024-09-16T17:21:27","date_gmt":"2024-09-16T17:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/rare-shy-penguin-wins-new-zealands-bird-of-the-year-vote\/"},"modified":"2024-09-16T17:21:27","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T17:21:27","slug":"rare-shy-penguin-wins-new-zealands-bird-of-the-year-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/rare-shy-penguin-wins-new-zealands-bird-of-the-year-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare shy penguin wins New Zealand’s bird of the year vote"},"content":{"rendered":"


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A shy yellow-eyed penguin has come out on top of one of New Zealand’s most contested competitions to win Bird of the Year. <\/p>\n

More than 50,000 people voted in the competition – which has in the past seen its fair share of scandal – including claims of foreign interference and allegations of cheating. <\/p>\n

Last year, the p\u016bteketeke won the competition<\/a> after comedian John Oliver threw his weight behind it, launching a campaign that involved him dressing up as the bird, complete with a striking burnt-orange mullet. <\/p>\n

Thought to be one of the world’s rarest penguin species, the hoiho can be found only in New Zealand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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According to Forest & Bird, the organisation that runs the competition, the hoiho secured a victory with 6,328 votes – ahead of the Karure Chatham Island black robin with more than 5,000 votes. <\/p>\n

This is the second time the hoiho has swooped in to win the competition, having also come in first in 2019 – the same year where allegations arose that the hoiho had only won after Russian interference. <\/p>\n

Hundreds of votes for the bird were found to have come from Russia, though Forest & Bird said these were likely not fradulent votes, but those from Russian ornithologists. <\/p>\n

In 2018, there were also claims that Australians tried to rig the contest in favour of the shag – a species of cormorant. <\/p>\n

The hoiho, whose Maori name means “noise shouter”, is notoriously shy despite its loud, shrill call, says the organisation, who said the win would raise conservation efforts for the species.<\/p>\n

It is an endangered species or three steps away from extinction and its numbers are decreasing, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis spotlight couldn\u2019t have come at a better time,\u201d said Forest & Bird’s chief executive Nicola Toki. \u201cThis iconic penguin is disappearing from mainland Aotearoa (New Zealand) before our eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conservation efforts are taking place on land but Ms Toki says they are also needed at sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re drowning in set nets and can\u2019t find enough food,” she said. “Our hoiho urgently need marine protected areas to give them a shot at survival.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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A shy yellow-eyed penguin has come out on top of one of New Zealand’s most contested competitions to win Bird of the Year. More than 50,000 people voted in the competition – which has in the past seen its fair share of scandal – including claims of foreign interference and allegations of cheating. Last year, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11456,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11454\/revisions\/11456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}