Hundreds of the world's smallest penguins are washing up dead on New Zealand's shores. An expert says it's the third 'mass death' event in 10 years.

• Hundreds of the world's smallest penguins have recently turned up dead on New Zealand's shores.
• Many of the native kororā appeared to have died of starvation.

In a development that's alarming conservationists and locals alike, hundreds of the world's smallest penguins have turned up dead on New Zealand's shores in recent weeks.

According to The Guardian, 183 kororā — also known as little blue penguins — were found at Ninety Mile Beach last week, just days after more than 100 were found at nearby Cable Bay. And last month, more than 160 penguins were found dead on various New Zealand beaches.

In total, close to 1,000 birds have been found dead since the start of May, the outlet reported, citing an expert from the country's Department of Conservation.

Native to the country, the blue kororā are the world's smallest penguins, weighing about 1kg (2.2 lbs) and measuring just over 25cms (9.84 inches).

Many of the penguins appeared to have died of starvation, the expert said, and they're starving because of the effects of climate change.

Ocean temperatures were the warmest on record last year, which, exacerbated by the La Niña weather conditions in recent months, have made the water temperatures too hot for the fish the penguins feed on, per the outlet. As the water temperature heats up, the fish either leave the area or go deeper in search of cooler waters. That makes them out of reach for the penguins to feed on.

"This little species [of penguin] can dive down to 20 or 30 metres routinely, but it's not that good at diving a lot deeper than that," Graeme Taylor, the department's principal science advisor, told The Guardian.

While mass die-offs of the creatures are not entirely unusual, the frequency at which they're happening is, according to the Department of Conversation website.

"Mass die-offs with more than 1,000 dead penguins used to be a once in a decade event," the department said, with birds dying due to illness or injury. But in the past 10 years alone, scientists have recorded at least three "mass-death years," Taylor told The Guardian.

That number could still rise. "As climate change effects continue, heatwaves, and other adverse weather events such as storms, will become stronger and more frequent. We may expect to see a corresponding increase in the amount of mass die-offs of penguin and other sea creatures," the department warned on its website.

Local media outlets have in recent days shared shocking pictures of piles of dead kororā, which a Department of Conservation expert says could be because people were picking the bodies up and placing them in one spot.

Meirene Hardy-Birch, an operations manager from the department, told Insider: "We ask that people leave dead penguins on the beach where they lie, to be washed out to sea or to decompose naturally."