A Pair of Yellow-eyed Penguins (Hoiho) Meet Up

Photo by Robert Sanson

Seen in this photo are a pair of Yellow-eyed Penguins (Hoiho) who have met up again at the end of the day after a long day fishing out in the Southern Ocean, off the coast of Southland, New Zealand. Their diet consists predominantly of fish. They are the rarest species of penguin in the world, found only in New Zealand, and sadly, their numbers are declining due to habitiat loss, predation of their young on land and predation in the ocean due to barracuda and leopard seals. However, it is believed that most deaths are due to getting caught in set nets around the coastline.

This photo was taken with my Olympus E-5 camera and Olympus 300 mm f2.8 lens. Settings were ISO 1000, f2.8, 1/1000s