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St Kilda Little Penguin Study Group

The St Kilda Breakwater is a popular place for seaside strollers and recreational anglers. In 1986 concerns were raised about a proposal to build a five-storey marina in the harbour. The protests prompted the then St Kilda City Council to seek to commission the Little Penguin expert - Emeritus Professor Mike Cullen of Monash University's Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department - to study the colony. Mike declined payment, but in June 1986 he initiated an ongoing, independent study of the colony.

Sadly, Mike passed away in March 2001 after 15 years of study on the St Kilda penguins. His immense contribution to the scientific study of penguins, and his presence on the study nights is sorely missed.

The St Kilda Penguin Study is now coordinated for Earthcare St Kilda by Zoe Hogg. An energetic group of volunteers continues to visit the Breakwater twice a month. The team microchips and weighs penguins, records their location on the breakwater, checks identification numbers, and monitors breeding success. This information is then collated into a substantial database of Little Penguin habits peculiar to the St Kilda colony.

Earthcare St Kilda Inc. was formed in 1989 as a local environment community group. Supported by the City of Port Phillip and its predecessor, the City of St Kilda, Earthcare has been a major force in raising community awareness about the Little Penguin colony, lobbying for protection of the colony, and initiating and implementing community education projects. It has generated volunteers for various penguin-related projects from 1989 to the present day.

Involvement of Other Groups

As volunteers, many and varied groups of people have played a part in protecting and maintaining the St Kilda Penguin Colony. These include Jewish Youth groups, East Timorese refugees and the Church of Latter Day Saints who provided 250 volunteers for one project. The City of Obu (Port Phillip's Japanese Sister City) has raised money and part-funded Earthcare's publication of the book, Alfreda the City Penguin.

Tracking Individual Birds

The penguins on St Kilda Breakwater have been studied since 1986 and during that time the members of the Penguin Study Group have noticed some "characters" among them.

Before 2001 all penguins discovered on the breakwater were fitted with a metal band on their right flipper to identify them. Subsequently, microchips have been used to identify individual birds. Although most of the penguins are known only by their number the study team couldn’t resist giving nick-names to some. ‘Alfreda’ was rushed to the Alfred Hospital casualty ward for surgical removal of fishing line. ‘Pavarotti’ was noted for his great weight and loud voice. ‘Long John’ the one-legged penguin still managed to feed his family despite his disability.

However, anthropomorphising (or attributing human characteristics to wild animals) is an issue of which the Penguin Study Group is very aware. Neil Blake says, "Although the members of the team have become quite familiar with individual penguins, we are very conscious of the need to not interfere with natural processes and to leave the penguins to live and die in their wild environment. If we find an underweight bird, we won’t feed it or move it to a shelter. We let nature take its course. But we will intervene when the cause of harm is clearly the result of human activities; for example, a penguin caught in an oil spill, or entangled in fishing line or plastic."