Juvenile Yellow Eyed Penguin Otago New Zealand
Photo & Vacation Spot

A juvenile Yellow-eyed Penguin stands in the shade of a tree at the Penguin Place Reserve in Otago on the South Island of New Zealand.

The Penguin Place Reserve is home to the Yellow-Eyed Penguins which was first established in 1985 on the Otago Peninsula in Otago on the South Island of New Zealand. At the reserve, tours are set up in small groups of about 15 where a guide will take you on a 90 minute tour through the colony to view the Yellow-eyed Penguins, an endangered species.

A juvenile Yellow-eyed Penguin stands beneath a tree at the Penguin Place Reserve where visitors can view him from the covered trenches, tunnels and observation huts. These have been set up so that humans will not disturb the penguins as they go about their daily activities.

The Yellow-eyed Penguin is the third largest species of penguin, the Emperor being the largest and the King Penguin being the second. When the juvenile reaches maturity it will stand anywhere from 22 to 31 inches tall and weigh between 10 to 13 pounds.

Funding to keep this exceptional reserve alive and to save the Yellow-eyed Penguin from extinction, comes from the guided tours.

Yellow Eyed Penguin Juvenile, Megadyptes antipodes, under the shade of a tree at the Penguin Place Reserve on the Otago Peninsula, Otago, East Coast, South Island, New Zealand.