On this particularly dreary and cold Monday, let this wee story about cute little penguins warm your heart.

A town in New Zealand has built a 25 metre long tunnel to save kororas, or blue penguins (also known as fairy penguins due to their small size).

The Oamaru underpass allows the endangered penguin species, which is the smallest in the world, to avoid a deadly road during their nightly trek home to their nests from the sea. The car lights from traffic had been blinding the penguins while tourists were also becoming a problem.

The underpass was constructed by the town of Oamaru and a number of locals and researchers. It took three weeks to build.

As you can see below, the underpass been a major success and penguins are using it very happily.

Really shows you the big difference humans can make in protecting the delicate animal kingdom.