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Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife |
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Help Save our Little Penguins A Manly Little Penguin with a nest box in the background
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For more information, please refer to the news links below; |
ABC News: Penguins killed: National Parks to step up patrols |
Courier Mail: Snipers to guard endangered Sydney penguins after attacks |
Live News: Snipers hired to protect terrorised penguins at Manly's North Head |
Little Penguin Eudyptula minor,
which means good little diver.
Little or Fairy Penguins are relatively common in Australia being found along the southern coast from Perth to Port Stephens. They are the only penguin species to breed in Australia and the smallest penguins in the world. Little Penguin colonies are found in NSW, South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria. Some colonies like the one in Sydney Harbour and the one at St Kilda in Melbourne are right in the backyard of Australia's major cities.
In recent years, penguin numbers have declined throughout much of the species range. The reasons vary from colony to colony, but always include disturbance of habitat and often killings by stray dogs.
The Foundation’s current effort to save the Little Penguins is a timely measure to address a national problem. Scientists in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales, have received funding to study and protect penguin populations simultaneously across their entire range.
Dr Belinda Cannell at Murdoch University suspects that Perth’s diminishing seagrass beds affect the feeding habits of the local Little Penguins. Backed with Foundation funds, one of her students will now study the bird’s diet and perhaps determine the cause of the recent decline of the colonies at Garden Island and Penguin Island. This project is funded through the Backyard Buddies adoptions in Western Australia.
In South Australia, penguin populations are declining on off-shore islands such as Granite and Kangaroo Island. The birds on the islands are relatively safe from predators, so falling numbers indicate that something is wrong with their ocean habitat. Scientists fear that the loss of feeding habitat such as seagrass beds is to blame. To find out if this is the case, the Foundation funds a PhD student to fit Little Penguins with satellite trackers and study their movements at sea in search of food. This project is funded through Backyard Buddies adoptions in South Australia.
Phillip Island's penguin parade is world famous and the local colony without a doubt the best known in Australia. While tourists from around the world flock to beaches every night to get a glimpse at these shy birds, volunteers at the Penguin Foundation keep an even closer eye on the penguins to ensure the health and wellbeing of the population. The Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife recently supported the Penguin Foundation with a grant to satellite track the birds while they are at sea. This will help the volunteers learn more about the movements of the penguins and ultimately allow for better protection of their habitat and feeding grounds. This project is funded through Backyard Buddies adoptions in Victoria.
St Kilda's penguins by comparison are a well kept secret. They established a breeding colony so close to Melbourne's doorstep that Earthcare Volunteers keep a watchful eye not only on the penguins but also on their human neighbours. Earthcare also received a grant from the Foundation to microchip their penguins to monitor closely the survival rate and breeding success of the individual birds. This project is funded through Backyard Buddies adoptions in Victoria.
From Tasmania comes a success story that encourages penguin experts Australia wide. Over the past years, Drew Lee from the Department of Primary Industries and Water has restored the penguin habitat in the Derwent Estuary and turned a declining population into a flourishing one. The Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife is now providing Drew with a burrowscope to monitor the breeding success of his Little Penguins. This optical device allows him to peek into the penguin burrows and get a clear view of the chicks without disturbing the birds. This project is funded through Backyard Buddies adoptions in Tasmania.
The colony in Sydney Harbour is the only mainland colony left in NSW, all other colonies being restricted to offshore islands due to predators. Because of this and the small size of the colony, about 60 breeding pairs, it was listed as an endangered population. For the first time in 2005 captive-bred penguins were released into the colony to boost population numbers.
Breeding season is the time of year when the birds are most vulnerable. At Manly, volunteer Penguin Wardens watch over the colony from July to January. Every night from 6 to 12 PM, the volunteers safeguard the colony and answer questions from the local community. They are ambassadors for the endangered Little Penguins of Manly, Sydney Harbour. They help with monitoring of the endangered colony and provide members of the public with accurate information about the penguins, their habitat and their needs. The Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife supports the volunteers by providing polar fleeces, beanies and gloves and other equipment. This project has received generous funding from Rotary.
Over the past six years the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife has funded both the monitoring of Manly’s endangered Little Penguin colony and the installation of artificial nest boxes to help increase the birds' breeding success and to make the captive-bred arrivals feel at home. The nest boxes have proven a higher than average breeding success since.
The Foundation is committed to keep up the support. The Boxes need to be replaced quite frequently due to termites and the penguins’ own housekeeping. New nest boxes are funded through Backyard Buddies adoptions in New South Wales and the Foundation's Dymocks Golden Paw Award.
Funding from our donors and MTU Australia is also used to enable the monitoring of the colony. Monitoring data has been collected over the past three breeding seasons allowing a comparison of breeding success. Since monitoring started in 2000, the number of penguins has remained constant over this time despite the impacts of oil spills, foxes and dogs.
On Brush Island in New South Wales the Little Penguins are enjoying their first safe breeding season for decades. A Foundation grant paid for the eradication of introduced black rats that used to eat both the penguin’s eggs and chicks. The removal of the rats turned this island into another safe breeding ground.