Education Ranger, Lucy Waller, joined Hokitika Primary School Ruma (room) Piwakawaka with teachers Maria and Caitlin for a field trip to the beach last week. We explored all the tracks and things to see at the beach and were lucky enough to find fresh penguin tracks leading right into their class planting site!
The students have been learning about kororā this year, using our new education resource book for activities and information. They met penguin detection dog Mena when she was here and saw her in action, and had a visit from Lucy to train them in the skills they needed to become penguin detectives.
Last week they finally made it out on to the beach with their penguin detective powers finely tuned! They had a great time spotting many different tracks including those made by weka, oyster catcher, scarab beetles, dogs, cats, penguins etc…..
For the last few years, Hokitika Primary has been planting harakeke and other helpful native plants on the beach to build back a habitat for our local penguins and to help against erosion. This made it all the more exciting when they spotted penguin tracks going into the habitat! What a sense of pride and fulfilment that they had made a safe nesting site for kororā.
Next, to make a beach map and put all the things they saw, heard and smelled on the map and then to explore more threats to penguins
