A shy penguin wins New Zealand’s bird election after a campaign full of memes and tattoos | CNN

Wellington, New Zealand (AP) – Loud, smelly, shy – and New Zealand’s bird of the year.

A yellow-eyed penguin won the country’s hotly contested bird election on Monday, giving supporters of the endangered bird hope that recognition from its victory could spark a revival for the species.

It followed a campaign for the annual Bird of the Year vote that was free of scandals of foreign interference and the controversy of fraud in previous votes. Instead, activists in the long-running contest sought votes in the usual ways — starting meme wars, seeking celebrity endorsements and even getting tattoos to prove their loyalty.

More than 50,000 people voted in the election, 300,000 less than last year, when British host John Oliver ran a humorous campaign of the pūteketeke – a “strange bird” that eats and vomits its own feathers – to a landslide victory.

This year, the number of votes cast represented 10% of the population of New Zealand – a country where nature is not far away and where the love of native birds is instilled in citizens from childhood.

“Birds are our hearts and souls,” said Emma Rawson, who campaigned for the fourth-placed owl, a little brown owl with a sad voice. New Zealand’s only native mammals are bats and marine species, keeping the spotlight on its birds, which are beloved – and often rare.

This year’s winner, hoiho – its name means “shouter” in the Maori language – is a shy bird thought to be the world’s rarest penguin. Found only on New Zealand’s South and Chatham islands – and on the subantarctic islands in the south of the country – numbers have declined dangerously by 78% in the last 15 years.

“This spotlight could not have come at a better time. This iconic penguin is disappearing from mainland Aotearoa before our eyes,” Nicola Toki, chief executive of Forest & Bird – the organization running the poll – said in a press release, using the Māori name for New Zealand. Despite great efforts to preserve the land, he said, the birds drown in nets and in the sea and cannot find enough food.

“The campaign has raised awareness, but what we hope is that it will generate tangible support,” said Charlie Buchan, hoiho’s campaign manager. But while the bird struggled, it attracted a star bill in the poll: celebrity recommendations came from British zoologist Jane Goodall, The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan, and two former New Zealand prime ministers.

Aspiring bird managers – this year ranging from power companies to high school students – apply to Forest & Bird for the positions. The hoiho bid was run by a group of wildlife groups, a museum, a brewery and a rugby team in the city of Dunedin, where the bird is found in New Zealand, making it the strongest campaign yet for the 2024 vote.

“I feel like we were the underdog,” said Emily Bull, campaign spokeswoman for the runner-up, the karure – a small, “goth” robin found only on New Zealand’s Chatham Island.

The karure bid was directed by the student union at Victoria University of Wellington, sparking a bitter row on campus when the student newspaper organized a campaign against the kororā, or little blue penguin.

The competition sparked a meme war with students in bird costumes. Several people got tattoos. When the newspaper’s campaign won the approval of the city council and the local zoo, Bull gave up on the black robin bid.

But the osprey – which has made a real comeback since the 1980s, with conservation efforts increasing the species from five birds to 250 – took second place overall.

This weekend as Rawson wrapped up his suffrage campaign, he also took his efforts directly to the people, polling at the dog park. The veteran campaign manager, who has directed other bird bids in previous years, was rewarded with a fourth-place finish in the poll, his best ever result.

“I’ve never been in a humanitarian campaign before,” said Rawson, who is attracted to the competition because of the money and awareness it generates. The campaign took a more calming tone this year, he added.

“There has been no international intervention, although that was very interesting,” he said, referring to Oliver’s high-profile campaign.

It was not the only controversy that the election has seen. Although anyone in the world can vote, Forest & Bird now requires voters to verify their votes after foreign interference plagued the contest in the past. In 2018, Australians cast hundreds of fraudulent votes in favor of the shag.

The following year, Forest & Bird had to clarify that most of the votes from Russia appeared to be from legitimate bird lovers.

Although the campaigns are fiercely competitive, administrators described the approach as more akin to professional wrestling — where the fights are scripted — than a divisive political contest.

“Sometimes people want to make posts that look like you and they’ll message you all the time and be like, hey, is it okay if I post this?” Bull said. “There is a very sweet community. It is very good.”