Fears little penguins will be wiped out
It is feared the native little penguin population on South Australia’s Granite Island will be wiped out by next year.
Dwindling fish stocks and an increase in predators like seals have sent number plummeting in recent times.
In 2002, it was estimated there were 1800 penguins, but a census last year recorded just 26.
Their future is looking bleak.
“We haven’t seen any eggs as yet, so this means they’ve just not been breeding,” Dorothy Longdon from the Granite Island Penguin Centre said.
Tours around the island in search of the little penguins have already been cut.
The Granite Island centre has a permit to breed and keep up to 10 penguins, but it said it is not allowed to release them into the wild to help restore the colony.
“We would dearly love to breed and release, and that’s what we’ll be striving to do,” Ms Longdon said.
And now help could be on the way to save the little penguins.
“The state government has come on board,” Victor Harbor mayor Graham Philip said.
“They’ve organised a general count of penguins in Australia, plus also some DNA testing.”
