Dec 2, 20243 min read

A Guide to Melbourne, Australia’s Little Penguins (Part 2)

Measuring just 33 cm and weighing under 1 kg, it’s easy to see how the little penguin got its name.

There are 18 species of penguin found around the world, with the little penguin being the smallest and only penguin with blue and white feathers.
Little penguins are found along the coastline of southern Australia and in New Zealand, with Phillip Island boasting the largest colony—home to around 40,000 breeding penguins.

Life as a little penguin

Little penguins are birds that don’t fly.
Through many millions of years of evolution, they have developed wings that are excellent for using as swimming rather than flying.
Around Phillip Island, adult little penguins can spend over four weeks out at sea looking for food. They eat young barracouta, anchovies, red cod, warehou and pilchards, as well as interesting things like squid and even sea jellies. In fact, penguins can eat about 25% of their body weight in a day!
Little penguins spend approximately 80% of their lives in the ocean, only coming to shore to maintain their burrows, breed and raise young, as well as moult their old feathers.
Before coming to land, they gather in offshore groups called ‘rafts’.
They wait for dusk before crossing the beach, to hide from predators such as pacific gulls and sea eagles.
They waddle across the shore in groups and follow familiar tracks back to their burrow. Along the way, they look for landmarks or listen to a partner calling to help them find their way home.

The little penguin is the only species of penguin found in Australia.
Breeding season is usually in the summer, when females lay two eggs that are similar in size and shape to a chicken’s egg.
During this time, after little penguins have finished hunting for food, they return to their burrow to feed their chicks.
Both male and female penguins help build and maintain their burrow, lining it with vegetation.
Most penguin couples pair up again each breeding season, although research shows that between 18% and 50% will ‘divorce’ if breeding doesn’t produce chicks.

Both parents take it in turns to incubate their eggs, and the eggs hatch after ~35 days.
The parents take turns staying with their chicks until they are about 3-4 weeks of age.
At around four weeks of age, the chicks are left on their own while their parents continue bringing food back.
When they’re around eight weeks of age, little penguin chicks leave their nest behind and head out to sea for the first time on their own.
Parents don’t teach the chicks how to swim or catch food, so they have to learn instinctively.
In their first year of life, penguin chicks travel further than adults.
They then return to the colony when they are about a year old, and begin breeding from two to three years of age.
Little Penguins live on average for 6.5 years in the wild.