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Granite Island's small and fragile colony of little penguins has recorded a "significant increase" in numbers despite South Australia's ongoing harmful algal bloom. A team of 56 volunteers scoured the island looking for active and inactive burrows, as researchers calculated the number of adult birds returning to the island each night. Diane Colombelli-Negrel, from Flinders University, said the census found 18 active burrows, suggesting an adult population of 36 birds. She said "so far" it appeared the state's ongoing algal bloom was not affecting the Granite Island penguins. "It doesn't mean it can't affect them in the future, but at the moment we are seeing increasing numbers and the birds that we are looking after and measuring seem to be quite heavy as well, so they seem to be quite healthy," she said. Little penguins eat small fish such as pilchards and sardines, with Granite Island penguins known to forage around the nearby mouth of the River Murray. They can travel up to 20 kilometres each day in search of food but tend to travel less during the breeding season. Fragile colony of survivors The island's penguin population plummeted from more than 1,500 adults during the Millennium Drought and has remained low. The population fell to just 12 after a fox attack in 2020. A fox-proof gate has since been installed on the bridge to the island. Dr Colombelli-Negrel's past research indicated the historical population crash was likely caused by years of low flows from the River Murray during the drought and the effect on fish populations hunted by the penguins. Before the volunteers started their search, they were given an information briefing by Dr Colombelli-Negrel and fellow researcher Stephen Hedges on signs that a burrow is active, such as fresh nesting, excavation and penguin poo. "That smell you will never forget in your life," Mr Hedges told the group. Undeterred, the team of 56 volunteers set off and walked across the causeway bridge that separates the island from the holiday and retirement town of Victor Harbor. Using his years of experience as a volunteer and tour guide, Mr Hedges directed the team to areas where there had been inactive and active burrows. Veterinary student Callan Ineson said he volunteered because he wanted to specialise in treating wildlife and to find out more about the lives of wild penguins. "They are one of my favourite ones [animals]," he said. Nursing student Ash Colgan and her Canadian partner Cameron Schwabe travelled from Adelaide to volunteer and enthusiastically combed the island. Eventually he did, becoming the first in the group to find a burrow with a fluffy chick inside, waiting for its parents to come back from a day of foraging to feed it. Citizen science prize Victor Harbor's Little Penguin Volunteer Monitoring Program recently won first prize in the 2025 South Australian Citizen Science Awards. Volunteers in the program take turns to cross to the island and monitor the birds coming ashore each night. They also help researchers to gather data in other ways. "They literally back up to it and cover it. We get about three nights of coverage before it's smothered." Mr Hedges diligently cleans the camera and replaces it, allowing monitoring to continue. When creating the award, former environment minister Susan Close said the volunteers' efforts were creating a dataset that would hopefully help to protect and rebuild the penguin population. A census of the numbers of little penguins across the colonies on Kangaroo Island is being conducted by the Kangaroo Island Landscape Board, with results expected in the next few weeks.
