Science dusts off penguins for 80th birthday

Bridie Smith Science and Technology Reporter

March 4, 2011

 

 Phillip Island's Little Penguins - the stars of the famous Penguin Parade - can now be more safely "de-oiled".

SCIENTISTS have come up with a novel way of ''dry cleaning'' Phillip Island's famed Little Penguins.
As the island prepares to mark the penguin parade's 80th anniversary - which attracts more than 500,000 visitors a year - researchers John Orbell from Victoria University and Peter Dann from Phillip Island Nature Park are testing a new method of cleaning oil from the birds' feathers.
''It's essentially a dry cleaning process that we're developing,'' Professor Orbell said. ''It's more benign than detergents, which can be quite damaging to plumage and to fur.''

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Watching the penguin parade via torchlight during the 1930s.

The technique is based on oil-absorbing magnetic particles and involves sprinkling iron powder on oil-coated penguins. It can be used on seabirds, seals and sea otters.
The results have had surprising success, with the oil quickly absorbed by the powder, making it easy to remove with a magnet. The oil and iron powder can then be separated and the iron powder re-used.
Dr Dann said that, unlike washing the penguins, the method did not disrupt the feather structure, which is important in keeping penguins warm.
''The problem with cleaning an oiled penguin is that you have to rub the detergent through the feathers and that mucks up the structure of the feathers, which is actually the waterproofing,'' Dr Dann said. ''It can take weeks or months until they can get their feathers back to a condition where they are waterproof.''
He said the aim was to use the technique to ''de-oil'' penguins on the spot as they returned to shore, rather than removing them to clean, which was more disruptive.
Sea vessels offloading oil has been a problem for the colony of 28,000 penguins and the nature park.
''Penguins are robust, but they are also quite vulnerable because they waddle around through oil spills and, not being able to fly, they get the oil on their plumage,'' Professor Orbell said. ''It's quite a serious problem.''
Oil can interfere with the hatching of eggs if an adult coated in oil returns to the nest.

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