Penguin chicks killed on Kangaroo Island

October 07, 2011 

Photo: Penguins now counted at four locations

Fifteen dead penguin chicks have been found near the Kingscote breeding colony on Kangaroo Island.

It is thought a dog or a cat mauled them.
There was a similar attack in the same area just over a year ago.
Martine Kinloch from the area's Natural Resources Management Board says its cameras have shown domestic and feral animals are often near the colony.
"This is a particularly long run of it and very visible because the bodies are all being left sort of by the side of the main road," she said.
"So they're very visible and ... they've all had their heads taken off."
A census of penguin numbers on the island is about to start at Emu Bay.
The Natural Resources Management Board says about 60 volunteers will count the little penguin burrows.
Ms Kinloch says the census had been done only at Kingscote in the past, but a funding boost now allows a count at four locations on the island.
"We take the geographical coordinates of each burrow, so we end up with a map and each of those burrows has some information about it, for example whether we found it occupied at the time we did the census, so we get an exact map of each colony and half a dozen colonies across the island that we haven't previously had," she said.
She says last year's census found about 700 adult penguins at Kingscote, down from 860 back in 2007.
"Could be nothing more than total population variability, or it could be factors to do with different conditions when you conduct the census," she said.
"For example in years where you have a lot of tall grass it can be quite a lot harder to actually find penguin burrows or, you know, we could be seeing some sort of slow trend downward in their numbers."

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