Little penguin population down to 20

By Kim Robertson

Updated 21 minutes ago

(video available at source)

The colony of little penguins on Granite Island at Victor Harbor is on the brink of disappearing, an ecologist has warned.

Local conservation group the Friends of Encounter Seabirds estimates only 20 little penguins remain on the island, down from 102 last year and 1600 a decade ago.
More than 30 volunteers carried out a survey on the popular tourist spot today and will follow up with another census next week.
Ecologist Natalie Bool says she the creatures should be identified as a vulnerable species.
"We did do a whole island count of the number of active burrows and at this stage the estimate of the number of penguins remaining is around 20," she said.
"We will need to confirm that next week on Monday when we conduct another census.
"Based on previous years, the decline has been around 30 per cent per year and this year is a greater decline than what we've seen in recent years."
Ms Bool says 160 little penguins have been found dead along South Australia's coastline in the past year.
She says domestic cats and dogs are known to have killed the creatures in the past.
But she says the full reasons for the decline remain a mystery and fears the colony will soon disappear altogether.
"It's certainly a possibility. It's nature and so we don't know how exactly and we can't predict those things completely but I think it is possible to see the total extinction of the species on the island," she said.
"So many people identify their experience on Granite Island with these little penguins.
"There could be a few birds that manage to hang on, but it certainly won't get back to the numbers it used to be."
A recent study carried out on nearby West Island found only one penguin burrow after 4000 birds were recorded in the early 1990s.
Ms Bool says efforts must be made to prevent other colonies, including on Kangaroo Island, from going the same way.
"Isolate different potential causes, such as habitat modification, or introduced species and also monitoring their breeding success," she said.
"We need to know that information to be able to properly manage the populations."

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