A smelly penguin wins New Zealand's hard-fought bird election

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — It's noisy, smelly, shy — and New Zealand’s bird of the year.

The hoiho, or yellow-eyed penguin, won the country’s fiercely fought avian election on Monday, offering hope to supporters of the endangered bird that recognition from its victory might prompt a revival of the species.

It followed a campaign for the annual Bird of the Year vote that was without the foreign interference scandals and cheating controversies of past polls. Instead, campaigners in the long-running contest sought votes in the usual ways — launching meme wars, seeking celebrity endorsements and even getting tattoos to prove their loyalty.

More than 50,000 people voted in the poll, 300,000 fewer than last year, when British late night host John Oliver drove a humorous campaign for the pūteketeke -- a “deeply weird bird” which eats and vomits its own feathers – securing a landslide win.

This year, the number of votes cast represented 1% of the population of New Zealand — a country where nature is never far away and where a love of native birds is instilled in citizens from childhood.

“Birds are our heart and soul,” said Emma Rawson, who campaigned for the fourth-placed ruru, a small brown owl with a melancholic call. New Zealand's only native mammals are bats and marine species, putting the spotlight on its birds, which are beloved — and often rare.

This year's victor, the hoiho — its name means “noise shouter” in the Māori language — is a shy bird thought to be the world's rarest penguin. Only found on New Zealand's South and Chatham islands — and on subantarctic islands south of the country — numbers have dropped perilously by 78% in the past 15 years.

“This spotlight couldn’t 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 that runs the poll — said in a press release, using the Māori name for New Zealand. Despite intensive conservation efforts on land, she said, the birds drown in nets and sea and can't find enough food.

“The campaign has raised awareness, but what we really hope is that it brings tangible support,” said Charlie Buchan, campaign manager for the hoiho. But while the bird is struggling, it attracted a star billing in the poll: celebrity endorsements flew in from English zoologist Jane Goodall, host of the Amazing Race Phil Keoghan, and two former New Zealand prime ministers.

Aspiring bird campaign managers — this year ranging from power companies to high school students — submit applications to Forest & Bird for the posts. The hoiho bid was run by a collective of wildlife groups, a museum, a brewery and a rugby team in the city of Dunedin, where the bird is found on mainland New Zealand, making it the highest-powered campaign of the 2024 vote.

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

The karure's bid was directed by the students’ association at Victoria University of Wellington, prompting a fierce skirmish on the college campus when the student magazine staged an opposing campaign for the kororā, or little blue penguin.

The rivalry provoked a meme war and students in bird costumes. Several people got tattoos. When the magazine’s campaign secured endorsements of the city council and local zoo, Bull despaired for the black robin's bid.

But the karure — which has performed a real-life 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 her campaign for the ruru, she took her efforts directly to the people, courting votes at a local dog park. The veteran campaign manager who has directed the bids for other birds in past years was rewarded by the ruru placing fourth in the poll, her best ever result.

“I have not been in human political campaigning before,” said Rawson, who is drawn to the competition because of the funds and awareness it generates. The campaign struck a more sedate tone this year, she added.

“There’s been no international interference, even though that was actually a lot of fun,” she said, referring to Oliver’s high-profile campaign.

It was not the only controversy the election has seen. While anyone in the world can vote, Forest & Bird now requires electors to verify their ballots after foreign interference plagued the contest before. In 2018, Australian pranksters cast hundreds of fraudulent votes in favor of the shag.

The following year, Forest & Bird was forced to clarify that a flurry of votes from Russia appeared to be from legitimate bird-lovers.

While campaigns are fiercely competitive, managers described tactics more akin to pro wrestling — in which fights are scripted — than divisive political contests.

“Sometimes people want to make posts that are kind of like beefy with you and they’ll always message you and be like, hey, is it okay if I post this?” Bull said. “There is a really sweet community. It's really wholesome.”

This story corrects percentage to 1% instead of 10%.

A karure, or Chatham Islands black robin pictured on Chatham Island in Sept. 2016 is runner-up to a hoiho or yellow-eyed penguin in the New Zealand Bird of the Year competition, announced Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Oscar Thomas via AP)

A man rides past a mural celebrating John Oliver's New Zealand's 2023 Bird of the Year campaign in Wellington, New Zealand, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Charlotte GrahamMcLay)

A hoiho or yellow-eyed penguin pictured on April 2, 2023, has won New Zealand's annual Bird of the Year vote, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, after a fierce contest absent the foreign interference and controversies that have upset the country's avian elections before. (Hayden Parsons via AP)

A hoiho or yellow-eyed penguin pictured on April 2, 2023, has won New Zealand's annual Bird of the Year vote, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, after a fierce contest absent the foreign interference and controversies that have upset the country's avian elections before. (Hayden Parsons via AP)

A hoiho or yellow-eyed penguin pictured on April 2, 2023, has won New Zealand's annual Bird of the Year vote, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, after a fierce contest absent the foreign interference and controversies that have upset the country's avian elections before. (Hayden Parsons via AP)

A hoiho or yellow-eyed penguin pictured on April 2, 2023, has won New Zealand's annual Bird of the Year vote, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, after a fierce contest absent the foreign interference and controversies that have upset the country's avian elections before. (Hayden Parsons via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes edged lower Wednesday after the Federal Reserve kicked off its efforts to prevent a recession with a bigger-than-usual cut to interest rates.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% to pull 0.9% below its all-time high set in July. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 103 points, or 0.2%, though it remains close to its record set on Monday. The Nasdaq composite lost 0.3%.

The momentous move by the Fed helps financial markets in two big ways. It eases the brakes off the economy, which has been slowing under the weight of higher rates, and it gives a boost to prices for all kinds of investments. Besides stocks, gold and bond prices had already rallied in recent months on expectations that cuts to rates were coming.

Because the move was so well telegraphed, and because markets had already climbed so much in anticipation of it, Wall Street’s reactions were relatively muted despite the Fed’s historic action. It marked the first cut to the federal funds rate in over four years, and it closed the door on a stretch where the Fed kept rates at a two-decade high to slow the economy enough to stifle the worst inflation in generations.

Now that inflation has eased significantly from its peak two summers ago and appears to be heading toward 2%, the Fed says it it can turn more of its attention toward protecting the slowing job market and overall economy.

“The time to support the labor market is when it’s strong and not when you begin to see the layoffs,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said. “That’s the situation we’re in.”

The only question is how much the Fed will ultimately cut rates by to do so, which can prove to be a tricky balance. Lowering rates would help the economy by making it easier for U.S. businesses and households to borrow. But it could also offer more fuel for inflation.

The Fed released forecasts Wednesday that said its median official expects to cut the federal funds rate by another half of a percentage point through the end of the year. That could mean a traditional-sized cut of a quarter of a percentage point at each of its two remaining meetings scheduled for 2024.

After that, the median Fed official is projecting another full percentage point of cuts during 2025.

Some critics say the Federal Reserve may have already kept interest rates too high for too long, doing damage to the economy.

“When the Fed is behind the curve, it sometimes takes a big move to catch up to where they should have been all along,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.

“We don’t think we’re behind,” Powell said in a press conference following the Fed’s announcement. “We think this is timely. But I think you can take this as a sign of our commitment not to get behind,” pointing to Wednesday’s hefty cut of half a percentage point. Powell called it a “good strong start to this.”

Other critics, meanwhile, say the Fed will need to be careful about cutting rates too much because of the possibility that inflation will remain stubbornly higher than it’s been in recent decades.

Powell repeated several times that the Fed does not feel “a rush to get this done” and will make its decisions on interest rates at each successive meeting, depending on what incoming data say.

“We’ll move as fast or as slow as we think is appropriate in real time,” he said. For now, he said, “the U.S. economy is in a good place, and our decision today is designed to keep it there.”

Like stock prices, Treasury yields wavered up and down repeatedly immediately after the Fed announced its cut and published its projections.

The 10-year Treasury yield eventually rose to 3.70% from 3.65% late Tuesday. The two-year yield, which more closely follows expectations for Fed action, edged up to 3.62% from 3.60% late Tuesday.

On Wall Street, Intuitive Machines soared 38.3% after NASA awarded it with a contract worth up to $4.82 billion for communication and navigation services the space agency will use to establish a long-term presence on the moon.

Trading in Tupperware Brands remained halted after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Its stock has been sinking, down to 51 cents, since a mini-revival early in the pandemic sent its stock above $30.

McGrath RentCorp, a company that rents and sells mobile office trailers, portable classrooms and other structures, fell 3.1% after it agreed to terminate its proposed buyout by WillScot following tough scrutiny of the deal from U.S. regulators.

All told, the S&P 500 slipped 16.32 points to 5,618.26. The Dow dropped 103.08 to 41,503.10, and the Nasdaq composite lost 54.76 to 17,573.30.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell modestly in Europe after rising in much of Asia.

The Bank of Japan and the Bank of England are also holding monetary policy meetings later this week. Neither central bank is expected to move on rates, though the language of what the officials say could be an indicator of later moves and still influence markets.

AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.

Specialist Genaro Saporito, foreground, works with traders at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

The news conference of Federal' Reserve Chair Jerome Powell appears on a screen as trader Neil Catania works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Michale Conlon, right, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's news conference appears on a television screen behind him, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Edward Curran works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Specialist John O'Hara works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Leon Montana works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Aaron Ford works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Michael Capolino works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

A bus passes the Wall St. subway station on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

The New York Stock Exchange, with a banner for American Eagle Outfitters, is shown on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

A person stands near an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People stand near an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People stand in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person rides a bicycle in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)