Nikki Wong's Aussie Exotics 16

: Announcing my sixteenth "animal of note": the Little Penguin.

#16

NAME: Little Penguin (or Blue Penguin)
KINGDOM/PHYLUM/CLASS/ORDER/FAMILY/GENUS & SPECIES:
Animalia/Chordata/Aves/Sphenisciformes/Spheniscidae/Eudyptula minor
LENGTH: 43 cm (17 in) in length, between 30 and 33 cm (12 to 13 inches) tall
WEIGHT: averaging about 1.5 kilogram (3.3 pounds)
HABITAT: the coastlines areas of southern Australia and New Zealand
WHAT IT EATS: a light seafood diet!

DESCRIPTION: The Little Penguin is the smallest species of penguin.

They have several other common names. In Australia, they are also referred to as Fairy Penguins because of their tiny size. In New Zealand, they are also called Little Blue Penguins, or just Blue Penguins, owing to their slate-blue plumage, and they are called Kororā in Māori.

Like those of all penguins, the little penguin's wings have developed into flippers used for swimming. The head and upperparts are blue in colour, with slate-grey ear coverts fading to white underneath, from the chin to the belly. The flippers are blue. The dark grey-black beak is 3–4 cm long, the irises pale silvery- or bluish-grey or hazel, and the feet pink above with black soles and webbing. An immature individual will have a shorter bill and lighter upperparts.

HABITAT: The Little Penguin breeds along the entire coastline of New Zealand, the Chatham Islands, and southern Australia (including roughly 20,000 pairs on Babel Island).

Little penguins have also been reported from Chile (where they are known as Pingüino pequeño or Pingüino azul) (Isla Chañaral 1996, Playa de Santo Domingo, San Antonio, 16 March 1997) and South Africa, but it is unclear whether these birds were vagrants.

Rough estimates (as new colonies continue to be discovered) of the world population are around 350,000-600,000 animals.

Little Penguin colonies: [link]

DIET: Little Penguins feed by hunting fish, squid and other small sea animals, for which they travel and dive quite extensively. They are generally inshore feeders.

The use of data loggers has provided information of the diving behaviour of Little Penguins. 50% of their dives go no deeper than 2m and the mean diving time is 21 seconds. Yet, they are able to dive as deep as 20m and remained submerged as long as 60 sec.

BEHAVIOUR: Like Galápagos penguins, Little Penguins spend the whole day swimming in the sea. They are out at sunrise and hunt into the evening. Little Penguins preen their feathers to keep them waterproof. They do this by rubbing a tiny drop of oil onto every feather from a special gland above the tail.

BREEDING: Little Penguins mature at different ages. The female matures at 2 years old, while the male matures at 3 years old. Little Penguins only remain faithful to their partner in breeding seasons and whilst hatching eggs. At other times of the year they do tend to swap burrows. They exhibit site fidelity to their nesting colonies and nesting sites over successive years.

Little Penguins live year-round in large colonies, with each individual breeding pair forming a burrow in which to raise their chicks (of which two are born at a time, usually about 2 days apart). Little Penguins typically return to their colonies to feed their chicks at dusk. The birds will tend to come ashore in small groups to provide some defence against predators which might pick off individuals one by one. In Australia, the strongest colonies are usually on cat-free and fox-free islands. However, the population on Granite Island (which is a fox, cat and dog-free island) has been severely depleted, from around 2000 penguins in the year of 2001 down to 146 in 2009.

LIFESPAN: Like most seabirds, Little Penguins have a long lifespan. The average for the species is 6.5 years, but flipper ringing experiments show in very exceptional cases up to 25 years in captivity.

RELATIONSHIP WITH HUMANS: South of Perth, Western Australia, visitors to Penguin Island are able to view penguins in a totally natural state. Less than one hour from the centre of the city, it is possible to see Little Penguins in all months, including visiting sensitive areas where they remain on land for extended periods for the purposes of moulting.

At Phillip Island, a viewing area has been set up at the Phillip Island Nature Park to allow visitors to view the nightly "penguin parade". Lights and concrete stands have been erected to allow visitors to see but not photograph the birds interacting in their colony.

In the town of Oamaru, Otago, New Zealand, visitors may view the birds returning to their colony at dusk. In Oamaru it is not uncommon for penguins to nest within the cellars and foundations of local shorefront properties, especially in the old historic precinct of the town. More recently, Little penguin viewing facilities have been put in place at Pilots Beach, Otago Peninsula and Dunedin in New Zealand. Here visitors are guided by volunteer wardens to watch penguins returning to their burrows at dusk.

Visitors to Kangaroo Island, South Australia, have the nightly opportunity to commune with penguins at the Kangaroo Island Marine Centre in Kingscote and at the Penneshaw Penguin Centre. Several human-made enclosures have been made to support breeding and shelter, with several people clearing an area for the penguins and burying the huts, most notably The Knox School, when their efforts were filmed and broadcast in 2008 by Totally Wild. There are also nightly tours of Granite Island. South of Adelaide, South Australia is home to a colony of 2000 fairy penguins. You are able to see the penguins every day in their natural habitat with guided tours every day at dusk. There is also a penguin centre where you can feed and interact with penguins.

PREDATORS/THREATS: The species is not considered endangered, except for the White-Flippered subspecies found only on Banks Peninsula and nearby Motunau Island in New Zealand. Since the 1960s, the mainland population has declined by 60-70%; though there has been a small increase on Motunau Island. But overall Little Penguin populations have been decreasing as well, with some colonies having been wiped out and other populations continuing to be at risk. However, new colonies have been established in urban areas.

The greatest threat to Little Penguin populations has been predation (including nest predation) from cats, foxes, large reptiles, ferrets and stoats. Due to their diminutive size and the introduction of new predators, some colonies have been reduced in size by as much as 98% in just a few years, such as the small colony on Middle Island, near Warrnambool, Victoria, which was reduced from 5000 penguins to 100. Because of this threat of colony collapse, conservationists pioneered an experimental technique using Maremma Sheepdogs to protect the colony and fend off would-be predators. This, in addition to the support from groups of volunteers who work to protect the penguins from attack at night, has enabled the penguin population to rebound. [link]

Little Penguins in the wild are sometimes preyed upon by New Zealand fur seals. A study done by researchers from the South Australian Research and Development Institute (based at the Waite campus of the University of Adelaide) found that roughly 40 percent of seal droppings in South Australia's Granite Island area contained Little Penguin remains.

In Sydney, snipers have been deployed to protect a colony of Little Penguins. This effort is in addition to support from local volunteers who work to protect the penguins from attack at night. [link]

6TEEN, Nikki Wong & Jonesy Garcia © Fresh Animation (nka FreshTV) Inc & NELVANA Ltd.