20 September 2000 Solving species status mystery of white-flippered penguins

A Lincoln University research project should determine whether the white-flippered penguins of Motunau Island and Banks Peninsula are a separate penguin species, or a sub species of the more widely distributed blue penguin.

Dr Adrian Paterson, an evolutionary biologist, is among six students and five staff members who have shared an allocation of funds from Lincoln University's Fund for Excellence. The fund distributes money raised from alumni towards promising research projects.

Dr Paterson's project will use gene composition techniques developed at Lincoln University to settle the debate over whether the local penguins are indeed a separate species, and to examine the difference between the blue penguins found on other parts of the New Zealand and Australian coasts.

Dr Paterson says the blue penguin has been extensively studied but there is disagreement about whether the various populations are distinct species or sub species. Currently there are six recognised groups; the Northern, Central, white-flippered, Southern, Chatham and Australian little blue penguins. Thirty years ago the Banks Peninsula and Motunau Island populations were classified as distinct species and renamed white-flippered penguin, but the population is now officially regarded by some as a population of blue penguin with an unusual variation in feather plumage.

Dr Paterson says previous genetic research has found a possible difference between the white-flippered and blue penguins and the current research proposal aims to investigate the difference in more detail.

It will generate a theory about the relationships between the blue penguin population and will also look at the way a particular species of lice has developed in the penguin populations. If the species status of the white-flippered penguin is confirmed, this will have conservation implications, because the species is low in numbers and restricted to Canterbury.

Lincoln's Fund for Excellence was the first of its kind established by a New Zealand university, and aims to promote excellence in teaching, research and student services using funds collected in an annual appeal to alumni, University Council members and friends of Lincoln University.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand