The sufferers at this New Zealand rehab middle aren’t folks — they’re penguins

(CNN) — Sassy, hardy, and vicious: that’s how yellow-eyed penguins are fondly described by the people who spend their days working with them.

“(They) aren’t as cute and cuddly as they look,” says Jason van Zanten, conservation manager at Penguin Place in the Otago Peninsula, New Zealand. “They can give you a really hard slap.”

Locally called hoiho, which means “noise shouter” in Māori, the yellow-eyed penguin is the largest of the penguin species that live and breed on New Zealand’s mainland.

But its population has fallen dramatically in the past 30 years due to increasing threats from predators, climate change and disease. “In the last 10 or so years, we’ve lost about three-quarters of the population,” says van Zanten.

Now, conservationists are rallying to save the species. Penguin Place — where van Zanten works — provides a place for hoiho to rest and recuperate while nearby, The Wildlife Hospital, Dunedin treats those with serious injury and disease.

These penguin havens are…

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