An extinct colony of little penguins has been reestablished after 30 years as a brand new chick hatched for the first time since 1993.
The chick was found to have been born near Eagles Claw Nature Reserve in Eden, in the Australian state of New South Wales, after a breeding pair returned to the area after decades of the species being decimated by predators such as foxes and dogs.
This chick was the first to hatch in New South Wales outside of Sydney for 30 years, and was helped along the way by local conservationists.
ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS
“Little penguins, the smallest of all penguin species, are a common breeding seabird along the southern coasts of Australia and also the South Island of New Zealand,” Nicholas Carlile, a senior research scientist at the NSW Department of Planning and Environment, told Newsweek.
Little penguins, also known as fairy penguins, are found across southern Australia and much of New Zealand. These tiny birds only grow to around 12 or 13 inches tall. They used to be more common across mainland Australia, but now are mostly found on offshore islands, with a scattered few colonies along the mainland coast. Of the mainland colonies, most only have a few hundred pairs.
These tiny birds are mostly under threat from introduced predators like foxes, dogs, cats, ferrets and stoats, but also are impacted by oil spills.
“Populations along mainland coastal New South Wales (NSW) are rare,” Carlile said. “The town of Eden boasted a penguin population of more than 20 pairs up until the early 1990s, when the dual impacts of predation, by feral European fox and domestic dogs, and nest inundation from storms, rendered the colony extinct. The only surviving coastal population in NSW, in the Sydney suburb of Manly, has been maintained through significant effort by conservation managers over the last 20 years.”
This mating pair was first spotted in late 2022 as they first began to form a pair bond. Local conservationists, the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), and Bega Valley Shire Council have worked to remove weeds and protect the area from foxes, watching the pair on a wildlife camera as they built their nest.
“The re-establishment of the Eden colony was made possible by the installation of a predator-proof fence in a coastal sea gutter that is unlikely to suffer from storm surges,” Carlile said.
The area is now being set up to attract further little penguin mating pairs, with conservationists building artificial burrows for them and even setting up a so-called “love machine” that plays the penguin’s mating calls.
“With a secure location, the site was further prepared for visiting penguins by the installation of specifically-designed nesting burrows. These concrete-perlite structures are heavy enough and with significant narrowing of the tunnel to prevent possible natural predation by local reptiles, goannas—monitor lizards that measure up to 2 meters in length. Finally, a sound attraction system, which plays mating calls of little penguins during the hours of darkness, was installed to give the impression that the site contained many productive penguins,” Carlile said.
NSW Department of Planning and Environment
“The hope, now that initial nesting has been successful, is for other adult penguins to join this pair in coming seasons. Together with returning chicks that are hatched here, a colony will be established over time. Maintenance of the fence and reduction in feral predators will be necessary for the long-term success of the colony. A ‘Friends Group’ will be established to garner support from the local community.”
Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about little penguins? Let us know via [email protected].