The travel outlined in the paper Proposed Overseas Travel Hon Damien O’Connor did not occur due to COVID-19
Using GPS tracking data obtained from yellow-eyed penguins since 2003, habitat models using the maximum entropy method were developed. Main factors determining habitat use were bathymetry, seafloor sediment composition, and colony distance. Acceptable model outputs were generated for North Otago and the Otago Peninsula as well as northern Stewart Island and Codfish Island. No adequate data were available for the Catlins, the eastern Foveaux Strait region, and southern Stewart Island; extrapolation from other regions proved unreliable. Habitat use maps are presented.
A survey of high-density breeding colonies of Westland petrels Procellaria westlandica, an endemic New Zealand seabird, undertaken between 2007 to 2011, conservatively estimated the population size to be 2827 (95%CI, 2143–3510) annual breeding pairs. The population may have been underestimated by up to 10% but is unlikely to have exceeded 4000 annual breeding pairs at the time of this survey. This estimate is the first detailed population estimate for all known breeding areas of this species.