Little penguins on Phillip Island experience baby boom

Updated Tue Jul 2, 2013 11:35am AEST

PHOTO: Modern family: Little penguins have an annual divorce rate of about 18 per cent.(AAP: Phillip Island Nature Parks)

EXTERNAL LINK: Penguin Foundation: about little penguins

MAP: VIC

The little penguins of Phillip Island are experiencing a baby boom.

Last summer’s breeding season was the best in a generation, a dramatic turnaround from the 1990s when either foxes were snatching the flightless birds or they were starving to death.

Research manager of the Phillip Island Nature Parks Dr Peter Dann says the rise in population is “about food”.

“These chicks are fatter, they’ve grown faster, the parents have brought back more food. The parents have been heavier than normal right through the breading seasons,” he said.

Dr Dann says it is a far cry from the 1990s, when food was scarce.

“It was even worse in 1995, when the main food they were eating during that breeding time was pilchard, and the pilchard had a huge die-off right across southern Australia to New Zealand,” he said.