Wild Hero 2024: Celebrating Dunedin Wildlife Hospital
In 2024, Wild Dunedin's Wild Hero Award recognised an entire team whose dedication is helping secure the future of some of New Zealand's rarest wildlife. The award was presented to the staff, board and trustees of the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital for their life-saving work caring for endangered native species, particularly hoiho (yellow-eyed penguins).
Based in Ōtepoti Dunedin, the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital is New Zealand's only veterinary hospital dedicated exclusively to treating native wildlife. Every year, its expert team cares for more than 600 native animals, achieving a remarkable success rate of around 80%, with the vast majority returning to the wild.
During the 2024 breeding season, the hospital played a critical role in protecting mainland hoiho populations. As avian diphtheria spread through breeding colonies, veterinarians, vet nurses and trained volunteers cared for up to 90 fragile chicks at any one time, hand-feeding them nutrient-rich fish slurry up to five times a day and treating the disease before returning them to their nests.
Without this level of intervention, many of these chicks would not have survived.
The hospital also achieved a world first by successfully incubating and hatching hoiho eggs. Eggs collected from vulnerable or difficult-to-access nesting sites were carefully incubated under controlled conditions before hatching and being raised by the veterinary team, providing another vital tool in the fight to save one of the world's rarest penguins.
Its patients include many of New Zealand's most treasured species, including kākāpō, kiwi, kea, tuatara and native seabirds, but the hospital's work with hoiho has become particularly significant as the species continues to decline across mainland New Zealand.
The hospital does not work alone. Every breeding season it brings together wildlife veterinarians and nurses from organisations including Auckland Zoo, Wellington Zoo and SEA LIFE Kelly Tarlton's Aquarium, alongside the Department of Conservation and partner organisations, creating a truly collaborative conservation effort.
The hospital's mission is simple but powerful: to improve the wellbeing of New Zealand's native wildlife through expert veterinary care, rehabilitation and education. Their work gives endangered species a second chance and provides hope for the future of Aotearoa's unique biodiversity.
The Wild Hero Award celebrates those making an extraordinary contribution to conservation, and in 2024 that honour belonged to the dedicated team at the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital, whose compassion, expertise and tireless commitment continue to save hundreds of native animals every year.
A truly deserving Wild Hero.
