Saving the yellow-eyed penguin – a photo essay

Photographer Murdo MacLeod visits New Zealand's South Island where conservationists are seeking to protect the endangered yellow-eyed penguin from predation, disease and habitat destruction

At the end of the day, having avoided being bitten on the flipper by a barracouta or chewed by a shark, a shy yellow-eyed penguin prepares to come ashore and make its bed in the bush. Emerging from the surf, he scans the apparently empty sandy strip with his beady eyes for signs of danger. Though he is a swift swimmer, he is fettered by his stumpy legs when ashore. But he grows confident as he comes close to the dense brush.

Then the unexpected happens: eight dark figures spring from three different locations and sprint toward the hoiho - or "little shouter" as the yellow-eyed penguin is known in MAori. He has been bushwhacked like this before and offers only token resistance. "Oh no, not again!" he may have thought.