There's hope not all is lost for the yellow-eyed penguin/hoiho after a shocking breeding season.
Preliminary counts show severe declines for nest numbers in Southland and Stewart Island.
"Despite the huge effort from rangers checking daily, and massive support from rehabilitators and veterinary services treating the underweight birds, the impact of the starvation events resulted in this low nest count," said Department of Conservation (DoC) South Island operations director Aaron Fleming.
It's not clear what caused the mass starvation, but DoC suspects a major flood in 2018 which muddied the waters in the Taieri and Clutha Rivers.
"Hoiho are visual hunters so murky waters make it more difficult to see prey," DoC said in a statement, adding to fears the species' days are numbered.
But Sue Murray from the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust says there's still hope, with other mainland sites not showing the same decline.
"It's a well-known fact that penguins can take a year off breeding, and we've got our fingers crossed that we will see lots of penguins - they're just not nesting this year," she told Newshub.
"What we are doing is increasing effort with searches both to see if they're nesting late this season, or if there's non-breeders that are still hanging around."
Murray said they are taking one step forward and two steps back.
"It's just devastating that with the effort we're putting it on-land, these birds are still not surviving."
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DoC says extra funding from this year's Budget is helping keep the species alive, with hundreds of birds receiving care at Dunedin Wildlife Hospital, Penguin Place and Penguin Rescue.
Research earlier this year found hoiho have changed their diets in response to "alterations of the marine habitat from fishing as well as ocean warming and climate change".
Some scientists believe the bird, featured on the $5 note, will be extinct in the next 25 years.
Newshub.
