Impact of volunteering

Volunteers rescue Little Penguin research program

Scientific research by community members, or citizen scientists, and Flinders University student volunteers is providing a solution to a threatened species research program on Granite Island in South Australia.

The population of wild Little Penguins on Granite Island has been the subject of intensive study by Flinders University researchers since 2012, but the research was under threat after recent disruptions to the nightly monitoring of the penguins.

Compiling data about the penguins had been conducted by guides hosting nightly tours of Granite Island for the public – but the combination of COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings, and attacks by foxes that almost halved the Little Penguin population to only 16 animals, put a stop to the tours.

Little Penguin census group on Granite Island in 2020.

In October 2020, several Flinders University students living in the Victor Harbor area answered the call to join a nightly volunteer roster – including Lucinda Gray, Maddie Turley and Nicole Fickling. The students were joined by an enthusiastic collection of local citizen scientists to monitor the penguins each night – putting the research program back on track.

Dr Diane Colombelli-Négrel (PhD(Biol) ’09), Flinders University Lecturer in Animal Behaviour and South Australia’s only Penguin Ecologist, is thrilled by the volunteers’ enthusiasm.

She has trained them to record specific information about the behaviour of the Little Penguins – including their feeding, moulting and mating cycles – and most importantly to not disturb the birds, especially by not exposing them to white torch light.

‘It’s an important two-way information process. Not only do we assess the behaviour of individual Little Penguins, but the program also has an influence on human behaviour,’ says

Dr Colombelli-Négrel. ‘Through studying the effects of human disturbance on Little Penguins, we can help prevent any further shrinkage of their population.’

The annual public census of the Little Penguins on Granite Island attracted the largest group of volunteers, with 65 helpers – including Flinders students – spending a day to count and locate active burrows all around the island.

What they found is encouraging, noting that the remaining adult Little Penguins on the island are breeding.

‘Our work is making a difference,’ says Dr Colombelli-Négrel, ‘and it shows the input of citizen scientists working at its best.’

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