Wellington Zoo has taken the unusual step of launching an urgent fundraising campaign to help it care for more than thirty birds injured in last week's wild weather.
A number of albatrosses, petrels and penguins were swept up or blown ashore.
The zoo's lead vet Shanna Rose said they've been "overwhelmed" with patients and were running out of room, meaning some birds were being cared for in plastic tubs.
"The main problem that we have to deal with after they've crashed landed are organ systems failures," she said.
"And we quite often see that their guts have stopped working. So a very complicated process to get them back on track."
Despite being more than a week on from the storm, feathery friends are still arriving.
"Because we're getting further up from when the event happened, the birds that are starting to trickle in are now the ones that are really, really sick," Rose said.
Te Kōhanga The Nest is the Zoo's hospital clinic and costs around a million dollars to run annually.
But costs for running it are getting higher, and after the sudden influx of birds, the Zoo has asked for extra help, making a social media post asking for donations.
"Big, big weather events don't happen often and it is a real drain on our resourcing and our finances," said Wellington Zoo's Erin Reilly.
"Wellington Zoo is a not for profit, so we rely on people visiting and donations to help fund the work that we do here."
The Northern Royal Albatross is one of the largest seabirds in the world and taking care of them has taken a lot of man power and effort.
Individual albatrosses have long life expectancies and only have chicks every few years, meaning that they are "cornerstones of their populations" and nursing them back to full health and returning them has a "major impact on conservation".
She said the team needs more support to do the "incredible mahi" that they do and asks for people to consider making a donation.
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