Little penguin numbers grow after near extinction - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Granite Island's little penguin population has climbed to 46.

The colony once had more than 1,000 birds before its numbers collapsed in 2012.

The SA government has now been given federal approval to start vaccinating wild penguins for bird flu, but it is waiting for the best time to start administering the jab.

Volunteers and researchers have reacted with joy to the news that 46 adult penguins have been counted as living on Granite Island in the 2026 island-wide census.

The number is 10 more than last year and 16 more than recorded in 2024.

However, it still remains far below the more than 1,000 birds that lived in the colony before its near extinction in 2012, when numbers collapsed to just 26.

Fleurieu district ranger Seiji Iwao leads one of the groups searching the south side of Granite Island. (ABC South East SA: Caroline Horn)

The colony reached its very lowest point in 2020 after a fox attack.

Associate Professor Diane Colombelli-Negrel from Flinders University was elated as she tallied up the numbers from the volunteers who scoured the island on Friday, looking for birds, chicks and signs that burrows were in active use.

Signs that include penguin poo, a fishy smell from the poo, feathers and tracks through grass showing current pathways.

"It's such great news and to see so many new birds as well. We are very excited," she said.

Volunteers search for signs of penguins for the island's census. (ABC South East SA: Caroline Horn)

Dozens of people volunteered to search the island, including National Parks and Wildlife officers, students and residents of the town of Victor Harbor, which looks out over the island.

Calls of "inactive", "active" and "found one" rang out as they climbed through vegetation, across rocky outcrops and peered into the rocky crevasses that serve as burrows.

Granite Island's little penguins have developed a longer breeding season since the near collapse of their colony.

They now breed for as long as nine months, an increase from 6.5 months. 

Dr Colombelli-Negrel said it was not fully understood why the increase had happened but it could be that the birds were trying to fledge two chicks in a season.

Dr Diane Colombelli-Negrel is elated at the latest increase in little penguin numbers. (ABC South East SA: Caroline Horn)

The birds also undergo a "catastrophic" moult, in which they lose every single feather and spend three months on land regrowing them, unable to go to sea and feed during this time and losing much of their body weight.

"It's a hard life, to be a penguin," said Dr Colombelli-Negrel, who said minimising the stress on the much-visited colony could continue to help them recover their numbers.

The South Australian government has now been given approval by federal authorities to start vaccinating wild penguins against bird flu.

Little penguins on nearby Kangaroo Island may also be vaccinated for bird flu. (Supplied: Kangaroo Island Landscape Board)

Victoria and New South Wales started vaccinating their little penguin populations in August, and the ones at Penguin Island, near Perth, got the first of their jabs in early October.

A spokesperson for the SA Department for Primary Industries said the timing of the vaccine in SA would be determined based on the penguins' breeding and moulting seasons.