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Little Penguins - Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife Australia - FNPW

Little Penguins

of Granite Island

  • YEAR: 2016
  • STATE: South Australia
  • FOCUS AREAS: Saving Species/SDG 14 : Life below water/SDG 15: Life on Land

The Little Penguin (Eudyptula minor) is the smallest species of penguin in the world, with an average height of just 33 cms. They are found only on the southern coastlines of Australia and New Zealand. Populations of Little Penguins are facing serious decline. On Granite Island in South Australia, numbers have fallen from 1548 in 2001 to just 22 in 2015.

Many Little Penguin populations are data deficient, so monitoring is a vital ingredient in effective conservation efforts.

FNPW support

This project was funded through generous donations from FNPW supporters across Australia and beyond.

Project overview

Funding from FNPW supported the installation of twelve bioacoustics automated recorders on Troubridge and Granite Islands in South Australia to determine the effectiveness of the recorders in different conditions. On each island, the recorders were positioned every 50m along one transect that crossed penguin breeding territories. The recorders were set to record for three hours just after nightfall and three hours just before dawn and were left to record every day for two months.

A total of 3132 hours of recordings were successfully collected over the two islands. The number of active nests within 10m of the recorders varied between 1-14 on Troubridge Island and 1-4 on Granite Island. A total of forty-five volunteers (local community and students) participated in field trips to collect the data and helped with penguin census on Granite Island

The Little Penguin monitoring project is an ongoing project. Current and future projects are focusing on (1) the impact of parasites/viruses and (2) environmental changes on the declines of the little penguins, (3) the importance of habitat for little penguin distribution and breeding success, and (4) filling out critical knowledge gaps in little penguin population trends.

Penguins - Grants for Nature Conservation - FNPW

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

FNPW supports projects across Australia. In the spirit of reconciliation we acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture.

Granite Island Penguin Monitoring

PROGRESS OF THIS PROJECT

The project was completed in 2017.

This project was funded by FNPW in 2016.

Granite Island Penguin Monitoring

PROJECT PARTNERS

Flinders University is the lead organisation for this project.

Further information about our project partner can be found on their website:

www.flinders.edu.au

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