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Granite Island penguin count confirms just 26 remain (ABC News)
A further count of little penguins on Granite Island at Victor Harbor has confirmed a colony of just 26.
Over 12 years, annual counts by the Friends of Encounter Seabirds have confirmed a fall from about 1,800.Attacks by dogs, cats and fur seals are considered possible causes for the sharp decline.
Natalie Bool from the friends' group says the South Australian Environment Department must step up efforts to tackle the problem.
"We need to have a co-ordinated effort to actually put research into little penguins in the state and also their problems, so we'd like to see monitoring being carried out at other islands," she said.
"It needs to be managed from a whole perspective across the state and there's only so much that our group can do, we're a community-based group."
Tony Flaherty, from the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board, says a plan is being implemented.
"I can't say whether penguins will disappear from Granite Island, that's of concern to me and to the department," he said.
"We cannot really manage the predation that is occurring at sea but what we can manage are the things that are happening on land, and that's where to date at a local level we've been concentrating our efforts.
"We've put together an action plan with the penguin ecologists and we're implementing that with the community groups and the Friends of Encounter Seabirds."
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