Little Penguin

The Little Penguin, also known as the Blue or Fairy Penguin, is the only penguin native to Australia.

Although once fairly common in the Sydney area, numbers have diminished through a combination of reasons including coastal development, pollution, the presence of more people and attacks by domestic pets.

The hardy little birds were once very common in Sydney and can still occasionally be glimpsed in the Harbour but beachside development and domestic pets have driven most colonies away from metropolitan Sydney and its beaches.

This year at Taronga has been the best Little Penguin breeding season ever. Keepers started with 38 birds, including 12 breeding pairs. After a lot of activity in and around our nest boxes with mothers and fathers taking turns sitting on their eggs, they were successful in rearing 19 chicks, which is six more than the previous year.

Little Penguins range around the southern Australian coast, including Bass Strait and Tasmania, and are found as far north as Port Macquarie.  They are great swimmers with young birds found to have made journeys of over 1200 km.

These aquatic acrobats spend most of the daylight hours at sea, fishing, returning to their burrows at dusk, except when moulting prevents them going to sea.  They are capable of climbing steep, rocky ground to reach their burrows.

The Zoo’s Wildlife Hospital annually treats about 40 Little Penguins brought in by the community suffering from malnutrition and injuries.  Most are successfully rehabilitated.

Things You Can Do at the Beach to Help Little Penguins:

Keep dogs on leashes

Don’t discard rubbish

Don’t throw away tangled fishing lines which can snare penguins

Do protect beach trees and plants.