Richard Robinson Underwater Photojournalist

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LIFE ON THE EDGE { 19 images } Created 11 Jul 2017

Like New Zealanders, penguins occupy the margin of land and sea, being dependent on both habitats, and vulnerable to changes in either as well. Their fate is wedded to our coasts, and as scientists have begun to understand, they are a perfect indicator of the health of this fragile boundary too. What can penguins tell us about our seas and shores?
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.
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  • Like New Zealanders, penguins occupy the margin of land and sea, being dependent on both habitats, and vulnerable to changes in either as well. Their fate is wedded to our coasts, and as scientists have begun to understand, they are a perfect indicator of the health of this fragile boundary too. What can penguins tell us about our seas and shores?<br />
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.<br />
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016.
    Snares Crested Penguin 01.tif
  • Snares crested penguins are endemic to the tiny Snares island group, 200 kilometres south of mainland New Zealand. Like all penguins, their lives are determined by the rhythms of a breeding cycle—laying eggs from late September and working ceaselessly to raise their chicks to fledging around four months later. The adults then go to sea for a couple of months to fatten up before returning to land to moult their feathers. Armed with fresh plumage, they spend the winter migrating thousands of kilometres in search of prey.<br />
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.<br />
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016.
    Snares Crested Penguin 02.tif
  • Snares crested penguins take to the sea to forage for food. Highly productive conditions around the Snares Islands make them an ideal place to raise their young. Stable isotope studies of living and historical specimens show that ocean productivity and the diet of the penguins here have remained unchanged for 120 years. This is in stark contrast to Campbell Island, where a change in ocean productivity appears to be responsible for a massive decline in rockhopper penguins. The Snares’ environmental stability and pest-free status make them invaluable as a scientific control for penguin studies around the world. <br />
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.<br />
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016.
    Snares Crested Penguin 03.tif
  • Yellow-eyed penguins, like the parents of this chick on Enderby Island, often nest hundreds of metres from the beach, necessitating long journeys through dense undergrowth. Nesting in private like this may help the birds avoid predatory sea lions. Parents take turns to forage for food, regurgitating squid and fish into their chicks’ mouths upon their return to the nest. Once the chicks are big enough to be left alone, both parents start going to sea on a daily basis—a team effort required to meet the infants’ escalating demands.<br />
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.<br />
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016.
    Hoiho 01.jpeg
  • Yellow-eyed penguins, like this one Enderby Island, often nest hundreds of metres from the beach, necessitating long journeys through dense undergrowth. Nesting in private like this may help the birds avoid predatory sea lions. Parents take turns to forage for food, regurgitating squid and fish into their chicks’ mouths upon their return to the nest. Once the chicks are big enough to be left alone, both parents start going to sea on a daily basis—a team effort required to meet the infants’ escalating demands.<br />
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.<br />
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016
    Hoiho 2.jpeg
  • Chris Muller Massey University wildlife biologist and wildlife vet Danielle Sijbranda catch Yellow Eyed Penguins (Megadyptes antipodes) a dusk that are returning from foraging at sea, to microchip and attach radio transmitters to help locate their elusive nests in the Sothern Rata on Enderby Island in the subantarctic Auckland Islands.<br />
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.<br />
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016.
    Hoiho 3.jpeg
  • Chris Muller Massey University wildlife biologist catches Yellow Eyed Penguins (Megadyptes antipodes) at dusk as they are returning from foraging at sea, to microchip and attach radio transmitters to help locate their elusive nests in the Sothern Rata on Enderby Island in the subantarctic Auckland Islands.<br />
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.<br />
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016.
    Hoiho 4.jpeg
  • Master’s student Marcus Richards prepares penguin fossils at the University of Otago, continuing a tradition of penguin science in the province. The first penguin fossil in the world to be officially described was collected near Oamaru in 1848, and, numerous species have been unearthed from the fossil-rich Otago hinterland. Richards’ supervisor, Ewan Fordyce, has described several important paleopenguin species, including the giant Kairuku penguins that once inhabited these coasts.<br />
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.<br />
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016.
    Penguin Fossil.tif
  • Waimanu manningeri - The world’s oldest penguin fossil which lived in Waipara, North Canterbury 60 million years ago. Sophisticated medical imaging software was used to scan the fossil skull of the ancient penguin, found in 2003 and now in Canterbury Museum’s collections, to investigate how losing the power of flight impacted on the anatomy of its brain.<br />
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.<br />
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016.
    Waimanu manningeri.tif
  • Stuffed penguins in the basement of Canterbury Museum. Prehistoric penguin remains previously attributed to yellow eyed penguins (centre) have been shown to belong to a similar, if slightly smaller species once common around the South Island—the Waitaha penguin, which became extinct and was replaced by yellow-eyed penguins from the subantarctic around 500 years ago. The findings shed new light on the presence of yelloweyeds on the mainland. Should we view them as endangered relics of a declining population, or as robust pioneers colonising a new northern frontier?<br />
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.<br />
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016.
    Taxidermy Penguins.tif
  • A Tawaki sits on its nest in dense Fiordland rainforest. Fossil records suggest tawaki were once found all around the South Island. Their secretive habits may be the result of hunting by humans—the very closely-related Snares crested penguins, isolated on their pest-free refuge south of Stewart Island, are utterly fearless around humans, by contrast.<br />
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.<br />
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016.
    Tawaki.tif
  • A tawaki returns to its nest in dense Fiordland rainforest. Fossil records suggest tawaki were once found all around the South Island. Their secretive habits may be the result of hunting by humans—the very closely-related Snares crested penguins, isolated on their pest-free refuge south of Stewart Island, are utterly fearless around humans, by contrast.<br />
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/ <br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.<br />
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016.
    Tawaki 02.tif
  • Researchers Thomas Mattern (left) and Robin Long attach a GPS data logger to a tawaki in Milford Sound. By analysing carbon and nitrogen isotopes in blood and feather samples, scientists can gain an understanding of what the birds are feeding on, while the data loggers reveal where in the ocean they are getting their meal. Despite technically being offshore foragers, Milford Sound tawaki are travelling just a few hundred metres from their nests; an indication of the richness of the fjord environment.<br />
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.<br />
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016.
    Tawaki 03.tif
  • A Tawaki returns to its nest in dense Fiordland rainforest. Fossil records suggest tawaki were once found all around the South Island. Their secretive habits may be the result of hunting by humans—the very closely-related Snares crested penguins, isolated on their pest-free refuge south of Stewart Island, are utterly fearless around humans, by contrast.<br />
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.<br />
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016.
    Tawaki 03.tif
  • The little blue penguin’s unique sheen is created by nanostructures in the feathers that scatter light in such a way as to create an aquatic hue. Interlocking feathers are a penguin’s waterproof insulation from the cold that would otherwise kill them, so they take meticulous care of them—carefully preening and oiling their plumage after each swim. They must remain ashore for several weeks during their annual feather moult, during which time they are unable to feed and lose a lot of condition.<br />
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.<br />
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016.
    Kororā 01.tif
  • Nesting little blue penguins make themselves at home under the floorboards of John Baster’s shop, and in drains, walls and under vehicles throughout the Victorian precinct of Oamaru. Recent DNA research has shown there are two little blue penguin species present in New Zealand. These Otago birds are part of a recently arrived group from Australia, a separate lineage from little penguins elsewhere. Like many penguins, little blues remain loyal to their nesting sites and will usually return to the same area they were born to breed, a tendency known as philopatry.<br />
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.<br />
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016.
    Kororā 02.tif
  • Snares crested penguins are endemic to the tiny Snares island group, 200 kilometres south of mainland New Zealand. Like all penguins, their lives are determined by the rhythms of a breeding cycle—laying eggs from late September and working ceaselessly to raise their chicks to fledging around four months later. The adults then go to sea for a couple of months to fatten up before returning to land to moult their feathers. Armed with fresh plumage, they spend the winter migrating thousands of kilometres in search of prey.<br />
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.<br />
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016.
    Snares Crested Penguin 04.tif
  • Yellow-eyed penguins, like this one Enderby Island, often nest hundreds of metres from the beach, necessitating long journeys through dense undergrowth. Nesting in private like this may help the birds avoid predatory sea lions. Parents take turns to forage for food, regurgitating squid and fish into their chicks’ mouths upon their return to the nest. Once the chicks are big enough to be left alone, both parents start going to sea on a daily basis—a team effort required to meet the infants’ escalating demands.<br />
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.<br />
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016.
    Hoiho 05.jpeg
  • The recent colonisation of the mainland by Yellow eyed penguins speaks of the resilience and adaptability of penguins, but the current decline in breeding numbers on the Otago Peninsula may sound a serious warning. Better understanding the processes affecting our penguins is crucial—they are the best litmus test we have for the health of the ocean that sustains not only them, but us as well.<br />
Read the feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/life-on-the-edge/<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 143 January-February 2017.<br />
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016.
    Penguin Prints.JPG