Yes, an aquarium really did name a “Naughty Penguin of the Month”. Between late 2018 and 2019 the National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier posted a pair of awards on its Facebook page every month: one little penguin praised as the good bird, one called out as the naughty one. Each winner was shown on a mock award board with a short charge sheet written by the keepers.
The offences were wonderfully petty. Fish snatched from a partner’s beak. A hiding place found on weighing day. Hair tugged from a visitor’s leg. A rival pushed off the pier. The “good” awards were just as funny, often given for doing the bare minimum, such as turning up to be weighed.
The joke works because it turns a row of identical-looking birds into individuals with names, partners, grudges and habits. Behind the humour, though, each board is a snapshot of real animal care: health checks, feeding, moulting, breeding season and the rehabilitation of injured wild penguins. Below are the boards from the archive, each with an explanation of what was actually going on.
Who the penguins are
The birds live in Penguin Cove, the aquarium’s little penguin enclosure. Little penguins, called kororā in Māori, are the smallest penguin species, standing roughly 30 to 33 cm tall and weighing around 1.5 kg. They nest in burrows near the shore, feed at sea and come ashore after dark in the wild.
Many of the Napier residents arrived through the aquarium’s rehabilitation centre after dog attacks, fishing-line injuries, partial blindness or abandonment as chicks. Birds that recover are released; those that cannot cope in the wild stay on permanently, which is why several of the award winners have disabilities or unusual histories.
The award boards, month by month
December 2018: Mo and Captain
Mo earned the first naughty title in this set by vanishing into the bushes on weighing day. Regular weigh-ins are one of the main ways keepers track a penguin’s health, so a no-show is mildly annoying for staff and very understandable from the bird’s side. Captain took the good award for finally holding his ground against Tux, a bird who appears again later in the list.
January 2019: Flip and Mr Mac
Flip was branded naughty for leaving her partner and their chick for a whole week. In little penguins both parents share incubation and feeding, so a long absence puts more work on the other bird. Mr Mac won good penguin simply for eating during a public encounter session, something the keepers said he normally refused to do in front of visitors.
February 2019: Lulu and Pepper
This month the awards went to a mother and daughter. Lulu was naughty for snapping at feeding time, while her daughter Pepper was praised for coaxing her boyfriend Tux into the water. Getting reluctant birds swimming matters: exercise keeps captive penguins fit and helps keep their feathers in good condition.
March 2019: Dave and Burny
Dave was partly hand-raised, so he is unusually comfortable with people. During a penguin encounter he tried to preen a visiting man and, being young and strong, tugged at the hairs on his leg; the keepers said the guest loved it. Burny was rewarded after her moult for spending her days in the water and carefully preening her new coat. Penguins replace their feathers in one go and cannot swim properly until the new plumage is waterproof, so good preening afterwards is a sign of recovery.
April 2019: Martin and Dora
Martin was a newcomer, rescued after a predator attack and grumpy during his rehabilitation, which the keepers found perfectly fair. Once settled, he started courting other males’ partners, including Mr Mac’s girlfriend Lulu and Timmy’s partner Draco, until Timmy chased him off. Dora, who used to expect a keeper to escort her to the feeding station, was praised for walking over by herself.
May 2019: Dave and Betty
Dave returned to the naughty list for getting in the way while keepers cleaned the windows of Penguin Cove, and staff hoped to catch him on video. Betty, described as one of the gentlest birds in the colony, took the good award for calmly going about her day while others squabbled. The keepers also joked that her steady influence might explain why her partner Mo had stayed out of trouble.
June 2019: Mo and Timmy
Mo was back, this time for sleeping in. Wild little penguins usually head to sea around dawn, but Mo reportedly refused to get up before about 9.30 am, walked over for breakfast and tried to return to bed. Timmy, usually pushy at mealtimes and fond of flicking sand at keepers, won good penguin for behaving himself; staff admitted, in their words, “he hasn’t been naughty LOL!”
July 2019: Tux and Elmo
Tux was named naughty for chasing other penguins around the feeding station. It was breeding season and his burrow sat close by, so he was defending territory, a normal behaviour; he had previously been in trouble for shoving Timmy off the pier. Elmo, the colony’s oldest bird at 19, won good penguin for leaving her burrow to eat instead of being hand-fed. She lost a flipper to fishing line in the wild and has cataracts. Keepers mentioned a wild lifespan of about ten years; studies of wild little penguins put the average closer to six or seven, which makes Elmo’s age even more remarkable.
August 2019: Mr Mac and Dora
Mr Mac snatched a fish straight out of the beak of his partner Lulu, who is nearly blind. The keepers’ verdict: “Taking food from an almost blind penguin – how could you Mr Mac!” Dora, by contrast, walked onto the scales at her health check with almost no fuss and earned her second good award in the series.
What the jokes reveal about penguin care
Read the boards closely and you get a tour of a keeper’s routine. Weigh days, feeding sessions, moult monitoring, breeding-season tension, cleaning, visitor encounters and care for elderly or disabled birds all turn up. The comic labels are human, of course. A penguin defending its burrow is not a bully, and one that hides on weighing day has no idea it broke a rule; but the underlying observations are real and come from people who know each bird by sight.
That familiarity is also what makes the format so effective at public engagement. People who would scroll past a fact sheet about seabird conservation will happily read about Mo’s lie-ins, and some of them will remember that fishing line cost Elmo a flipper.
How to help wild little penguins
- Keep dogs on a lead near beaches and coastal scrub where penguins nest; dog attacks are a major cause of injury.
- Take fishing line and hooks home, and pick up any you find.
- Drive slowly on coastal roads at dusk and night, when birds cross to their burrows.
- In New Zealand, report an injured penguin to the Department of Conservation on 0800 DOC HOT (0800 362 468).
Little penguins are not globally threatened, but in New Zealand they are listed as “at risk – declining”, so small local actions do make a difference.
Sources: National Aquarium of New Zealand on Facebook (original Penguin of the Month posts and images); National Aquarium of New Zealand; National Aquarium of New Zealand: Little Penguin Rehabilitation Centre; Wikipedia: Little penguin.
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