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The first inhabited place in the world to see the sun rise each day, the Chatham Islands are a remote archipelago situated to the east of Christchurch, New Zealand. The rugged and diverse landscapes of the islands boast dramatic cliffs, volcanic peaks and sandy beaches. Previously home to a host of native and endemic wildlife, many bird species have become extinct there since settlement by humans, including the Chatham Island crested penguin.
In 2019, an international team of researchers extracted mitochondrial DNA from subfossil bones discovered in sand dunes on the Chatham Islands. This research has confirmed that until a few centuries ago a unique crested penguin species, Eudyptes warhami, existed on the Chatham Islands. Crested penguins of the genus Eudyptes are black-and-white with yellow crests and red bills and eyes. Chatham Island crested penguins were among the largest of the crested penguins.
Undisturbed for millennia, the Chatham Islands were once teeming with wildlife. These islands were first inhabited around the 13th century by Eastern Polynesian navigators, the people now known as Moriori. There is evidence that Moriori hunted and consumed Eudyptes warhami, whose size made it likely to have been a valuable food source. Later, European settlers arrived, as well as Māori groups Ngāti Tama and Ngāti Mutunga. Descendants of Moriori still reside on the islands.