Fiordland Crested Penguin Stops Traffic In Bluff

[Coss]

Because I'm normally a Grinch, I found this interesting, when the rest of the world is consumed with plastic red and green things bought from shops etc.

 

Fiordland crested penguin stops traffic in Bluff (a City on the southern end of NZ's South Island)

 

 

 

New Zealand Tourism posted a Facebook video of a Fiordland crested penguin - the cute little critters with striking yellow brows - that stopped traffic on Sunday as it bounded across the road.

 

As rubberneckers​ stopped to catch a glimpse of the black and white fellow, another local (human) bent down to greet him.

 

"Everybody around here's got one," he told the passersby. "I'm just letting him off his leash."

 

Giggles from the crowd that had gathered encouraged more banter with his new flippered​ friend.

 

"He's always running into people's houses and stealing goldfish - he's a real nuisance eh."

 

Fiordland crested penguins, or tawaki, are a species endemic to New Zealand, and currently breed along the south-western coasts of the South Island and on Stewart Island.

 

It is also referred to as the New Zealand crested penguin, and its low numbers mean the Department of Conservation have classed the species as 'vulnerable to endangered'.

 

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/destinations/nz/99967058/fiordland-crested-penguin-stops-traffic-in-bluff