The cost of looking after baby orca Toa has so far cost taxpayers around $10,000.
The figure does not include the cost for Department of Conservation staffing.
The young calf needs round-the-clock care after becoming separated from his mother in Plimmerton, north of the capital, eight days ago.
Toa is currently being cared for in a pen near a wharf at Hongoeka after he was found by a teenager stranded and struggling in a rock pool.
There has yet to be a successful sighting of his pod.
ADVERTISEMENT
SHARE ME