St Kilda Breakwater Penguin Report

May2007 - April2008

St Kilda penguins have had a better year for food and weather although they are taking a wider spectrum of prey. There have only been a couple of storms where a few burrows were damaged and weights have generally been good. There were 184 instances of breeding and the chicks were well fed.

The first eggs were laid in July with a peak in October and some healthy looking fledgelings matured. Almost all the penguins moulted in March which is a bit unusual as moulting is usually spread over a longer period but we had fewer struggling brown feathered moulting penguins this year.

Penguin monitoring has some very long term volunteers and the number of volunteers has had to be fixed at 25 with a waiting list for any new comers.

The three penguin research teams continue to monitor the colony twice a month to add to the 20 years of data. A big thankyou to all the people who regularly give up their Sunday evenings no matter what the weather to brave penguin beaks, penguin excrement, and rock hopping in the dark.

A frame work for penguin and rakali research was created and can be viewed on www.stkildapenguins.com.au

Tiana Preston has been continuing her research for her PhD and Darren Giling wrote a paper on the distribution of penguins along the breakwater, plus various students have written essays and assignments.

Zoe Hogg and Tiana Preston attended a penguin conference in Hobart and put St Kilda penguins on the map along with a world wide study of all penguin species. A web site for all penguin matters world wide was created and this can be accessed on www.penguin.net.nz

The Public Board Walk became a popular spot for penguin watching and generally the public were respectful of the wildlife.

Parks Victoria put in a new fence and gate on the breakwater which is keeping out most of the unwelcome visitors to the colony. In the public area a small fence was erected at the base of the rock wall and this is giving some protection to the penguins in that area. Parks Victoria are currently looking at other solutions to the growing number of visitors to the board walk.

Some of the penguin team created a family tour called Beach Buddies which includes a look at the penguin colony but also investigates the total environment of St Kilda Harbour

Earthcare Received a $2000 grant from the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife to be spent on microchips for the coming year.

We have also received donations from Urban Penguin Tours.

Earthcare is concerned about the impacts of toxic substances being released from the mouth of the Yarra during dredging and is keeping a watchful eye on proceedings.

Channel Deepening issues are still unresolved with no penguin monitoring of the St Kilda colony by PoMC. We are hoping to at least get toxic monitoring of the penguins but are at present relying on our own statistical analysis of the weights of the colony to give us an indication of any problems.

Two recently beach washed dead penguins have been sent for analysis to give us a benchmark of the types and quantity of heavy metals they are carrying, as well as DDT and other chemicals they may have stored over their life cycle.

The St Kilda penguin website www.stkildapenguins.com.au is getting a steady stream of visitors.

A couple of our very old penguins have not been seen this year but we still have on the breakwater some banded in 1991. They become better at avoiding us as the years go by so we only rarely catch them. Peg Leg our one legged penguin raised chicks again despite being on show to the public all day every day. I think he will have a quieter time this year as he has had to move his burrow due to storm damage and he now has a secluded spot higher up the breakwater wall, although it must take him some time to get there with one leg.

Penguins recorded by season

The penguin season runs from May t o April

Season	Caught Adults	Caught Chicks	Caught Total	Seen but not caught Adults	Seen but not caught Chicks	Seen but not caught Total
2007/08	845	54	899	1864	179	2043
2006/07	833	53	886	1662	182	1844
2005/06	880	59	939	1846	234	2080
2004/05	684	39	723	1788	244	2032
2003/04	426	38	464	1123	178	1301

Number of Penguins newly microchipped

Year	Male	Female	Not sure of sex	Chicks	Total
2006-8	39	60	4	43	146
2006-7	48	50	3	42	143
2005-6	62	96	14	52	224
2004-5	61	93	12	26	192
2003-4	62	111	12	32	217

Frequency of recapture within a season

Number of times caught	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total number of penguin catches	Number caught irrespective of recapture
2007-8	286	106	42	27	10	9	3	1	1		1160	485
2006-7	317	111	50	16	8	5				1	833	508
2005-6	346	107	56	28	13	2	2		1		939	555
2004-5	301	101	38	20	4	1					723	465
2003-4	225	66	17	6	4	2					464	320

Population Estimates using breeding site observations

A new program for analysis of population estimates is currently being researched. This will give us a better formula than the current method therefore population estimates may change during 2008.

Season	No. Breeding Sites	Population Estimate
2007-8	184	854
2006-7	177	821
2005-6	221	1025
2004-5	146	677
2003-4	112	520
2002-3	92	427
2001-2	93	432
2000-1	95	441
1999-0	67	310
1998-9	71	329

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