Yellow-eyed Penguin - - (Megadyptes antipodes)

Wildlife Note Card Photography by Steven Holt

The Yellow-eyed Penguin lives along the shoreline of New Zealand and is the only penguin that usually sleeps on land. Having evolved in an area with no significant land based predators, this penguin was very vulnerable when ferrets and other predators were introduced to New Zealand. It is now an endangered species clinging to life in isolated areas on predator-free islands and rugged windswept headlands where predators more rarely venture. Unusual among penguins, Yellow-eyed Penguin find neighbors intolerable and therefore do not establish colonies. Two broods are almost never successful if they are so close that parents can see each other from the nest, since one set of parents will inevitably attack the other. Penguins have traded the ability to fly in the air for an exceptional ability to swim underwater; their narrow flipper-like wings propel them forward at near flight speeds. When swimming a distance penguins breathe by jumping completely free of the water, like porpoises.

Special thanks to Keith Iding for scanning the cards.