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Dan the penguin is named after Farmer Dan Helps because of the heroic rescue mission he put in to save it.



Ben, Pōhatu’s kayaking lead guide, was out on a tour of the Marine reserve that day. Their group stopped by the seal nursery to watch the pups. Then, Ben noticed a Kororā/little penguin, standing there out in the open, perched on a rock. He could see from a distance that it had pink on its chest. Weird, he thought. So, he went in for a closer look. He realised its white chest had blood on it, making it look pink, and he could see it was still bleeding. Blood was dripping from its flipper.
Ben radioed the farmhouse, and farmer Dan was luckily in. Ben couldn’t leave his kayak group unattended for safety reasons to try and rescue a penguin. So, Dan ended up jumping in a kayak and paddling flat out for a kilometre to meet Ben’s group and find the penguin.

Once Dan arrived, the sea swells had gotten bigger. He tried his best to land the kayak near the penguin, but the swells had made landing impossible. Unfortunately, he had to give up on taking the most direct route via kayak. So, he paddled all the way back to the beach (another kilometre), picked up a penguin carry cage, then awkwardly ran/hiked with it over the most rugged hilly coastal terrain, to where the penguin was, and then down into the seal colony he went. He knew he had to carefully and quietly catch the little guy, without it running off and becoming injured further, and in a way that the seals wouldn’t be disturbed and notice him. Dan grew up in Pōhatu, diving and swimming in the bay, and had done multiple penguin surveys and rescues over the years, so he knew what to look out for when navigating the area with seals. Only someone with Dan’s expertise of the terrain and the wildlife of Pōhatu could have attempted this. So, it was just lucky he was in that day.

A few hours later, Ben was ready to take his group back to Akaroa, and Dan had just arrived back from successfully catching the penguin in the seal colony.
He handed the carry cage over to Ben, exhausted and in need of a cup of tea.
Ben drove the little penguin up and over the hills to Robinsons Bay, to Pōhatu’s penguin rehabber Ave. It had a nasty cut in the armpit area, which was really challenging to bandage up, and started bleeding even more when she tried. The little guy was super feisty, which was a good sign. So, it was tucked into some clean towels and then rushed through on a 2-hour drive to the South Island Wildlife Hospital.

Farmer Dan later told Ave the crazy story of its rescue. So, Ave asked Pauline, the Penguin vet, if the Penguin Dan rescued could be named after him in honour of all the effort he put in. The funny thing is, it’s a little blue penguin, and most of the Pōhatu colony are white-flippered penguins.
Unfortunately, Pauline said it had a really bad eye injury and would never be able to be released back into the wild, even though it was a happy and now healthy little bird… but there was another option instead of euthanasia.
The international Antarctic Centre said they could take Dan the penguin in!
Team Pōhatu were relieved to hear the news. After all the effort put into the rescue, the little guy had another chance at life, living in luxury with other penguins with disabilities, being an advocate for penguin conservation!

Farmer Dan is a trustee of the Helps Pōhatu Conservation Trust and has rescued many penguins in need of help over the years; many have been successfully rehabilitated and are now back and thriving in the wild.
Living in Pōhatu, he’s always the first person we rely on… and the most fit. He’s an incredibly humble person, just getting jobs done, never wanting to be in the spotlight, but he has a passion for Pōhatu’s unique wildlife and protecting the Marine reserve. Often out there keeping an eye on any illegal poaching activities, notifying DoC, and collecting photographic evidence for them. This usually involves running/hiking to the Pōhatu headlands (a few kilometres of steep hilly country) with bulky camera equipment and tripods in time to catch them… all while managing the Pōhatu/Flea bay sheep farm’s day-to-day jobs.