They're small, cute and adorn everything from the council logo to primary school uniforms, but the little penguins of Rockingham's Penguin Island are in big trouble, scientists and residents say.
Penguin Island, just 600 metres off the Rockingham coast and 40 kilometres south of Perth's CBD, has been a popular day trip for generations, a place where visitors could swim, snorkel and hope to spot a little penguin in the wild.
And they are an icon of the City of Rockingham, according to residents.
Having the only population in the whole of the Indian Ocean is "very much a part of our cultural identity," Dawn Jecks, resident and convenor of the Save Rockingham's Little Penguins campaign, said.
Alarming population statistics
Ms Jecks first became concerned about the little penguins after attending a City of Rockingham council meeting in November 2020 and hearing a report from a council officer about the steep decline in the population.
The report showed that little penguin numbers had declined by 80 per cent, from about 1,600 in 2007 to 300 in 2019.
"I was quite horrified. I went home and I thought, I'm going to do something because nothing was happening."
She set up a Facebook page and launched a petition, calling for urgent state government action to halt the decline.
Now, in the wake of a difficult breeding season, she and the scientists involved in studying the population are redoubling their efforts to raise the alarm and save the population.
A disastrous breeding season
"What happened in 2021 is that the breeding season started very badly," Joe Fontaine, lecturer in environmental science at Murdoch University, said.
A La Niña weather pattern in 2021 led to a stronger Leeuwin current, which flows down the coast from the north of the state, making the sea surface temperature warmer, conditions associated with lower food availability for penguins.
Not only were conditions bad for breeding in July, heavy rains saw "adult birds washing up dead that were very emaciated and starved," Dr Fontaine said.
"But because of all that rain in July, which was unusual, conditions actually improved quite a bit by August. And what happened was all the birds suddenly had a lot of food available, and they started breeding.
"But it was very late in the year."
What that meant is that chicks that would normally have fledged well before Christmas were not ready to leave the nest by the time they came up against a hard deadline — their parents' need to moult.
Moulting time derails penguin chicks' final days in nest
Little penguins do what is known as a "catastrophic moult" every summer, shedding all their feathers, and growing new ones.
During those weeks they can't fish and have to rely on being a good weight before moulting begins — they also can't bring food to chicks in the nest.
"Normally, you would not have chicks that late in the year [because] adults would be done breeding, they can moult," Dr Fontaine said.
"But because things just started so late, it was a real tight point."
He said researcher Erin Clitheroe was monitoring about 17 chicks that were still in the nests in late December.
"She could see that their weight was starting to drop because they weren't getting fed."
Young penguins don't get help from their parents to learn how to fish. They also rely on being a good weight when they leave the nest, to sustain them while they take time to learn to fish for themselves.
Alarmed, Dr Fontaine wrote to the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA), which manages the island, on New Year's Eve to suggest hand-feeding the remaining chicks for seven to 10 days to tide them over until they were ready to leave the nest to "get the best outcome possible".
The department didn't exactly refuse his request, but Dr Fontaine didn't receive a reply until January 13, by which time it was too late to begin.
"The ones that were old enough, that had grown flight feathers, in the next week after [the] new year, they disappeared from those nests," he said.
While only a handful of chicks were lost, Dr Fontaine said it was a major concern for a rapidly declining population.
"If we had a large population, and this was just a bad year, that's sad — but it happens. Seabirds have a boom-and-bust life history.
"But when you get to the point where there's 250 birds left, and half of this year's chicks are still in the nest — if you let those chicks die, that's a problem.
Concerns about feeding dependency
Mark Cugley, DBCA's district manager for the Swan Coastal region, noted the department did intervene at times when chicks were struggling.
"This year, we took some abandoned chicks into our care in early December, and we've been helping to care for them since then," he said.
"Typically, because they've been cared for a number of weeks, they won't be able to be re-released to the wild.
"They'll form part of our captive colonies, either on the island at the Discovery Centre or Perth Zoo, or Caversham Wildlife Park."
Mr Cugley was more optimistic about the fate of the 17 chicks still in the nest between Christmas and New Year.
"There were 17 that the researchers were watching on our behalf, and 16 of those subsequently left the nest and were nowhere to be found.
"I saw that as a positive that whilst underweight, they've successfully fledged, left their nest.
There is further promising news on food sources for the little penguins.
"While very depleted due to the warmer sea surface temperatures earlier in the breeding season, there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that the whitebait and the food sources for penguins have returned, which I think is a positive as well," Mr Cugley said.
Long-term sustainability of population questioned
Mr Cugley acknowledged the department was concerned at the rapid decline of the little penguin population, to the point where it may not be sustainable.
"Looking at the population, it has declined very significantly since that first marine heatwave [in 2010] where we saw the food sources become very scarce," he said.
"This season, again, we've had a season where breeding participation on the island was at its lowest since we began this nest box monitoring in 2010, and we know that chick abandonment has been high as well.
He said the department was continuing to look, in collaboration with researchers, at what more could be done to support the little penguins.
"We've got 220 nest boxes on the island to help provide habitat.
"We do revegetation works on the island as well. We do seasonal closures on the island so there is time when there's no visitation or commercial activities happening.
"We need to continue to look at how we're managing those areas, and make sure that we're continuing to do all we can to support the little penguin population, and also those other birds and marine wildlife that are in these areas as well."
Climate change demands urgent action
Dr Clitheroe, who completed her PhD on the impact of climate change on the little penguins' terrestrial habitat, currently monitors the species.
She said that while climate change was having a big impact, there were things that could be done.
"We were finding that the nests on Penguin Island, both natural and artificial nests, were getting very hot, and little penguins can't really handle temperatures over about 35 degrees.
"Any extended number of hours over that temperature can actually be fatal."
But she did find interventions that would work to help little penguins' survival.
"I looked at modifying some of the nest boxes to try and reduce the nest temperature and that was quite successful," she said.
"I also found the vegetation was really critical for keeping these nests nice and cool."
She said that even with the forces of climate change against them, little penguins were highly adaptable, and with help, could be given a chance.
"With increasing and cumulating pressures, there's going to really be a breaking point where they won't be able to recover without help," she said.
"We really need to start implementing climate change-adaptation strategies, and a lot of these actions will have to be implemented based on an incomplete knowledge of the system.
"Unfortunately, we've run out of time to do that. We need to just start implementing, based on what we know, and then the efficacy of these strategies can be monitored.
"If they work, that's fantastic, but if they don't, then we and others can actually learn from that as well."
'Why do they call it Penguin Island when there's no penguins?'
Dawn Jecks is determined to fight for the penguin population and believes the way forward is to get the attention of West Australian Minister for Environment and Climate Action, Reece Whitby, as well as Rockingham's local MP, Mark McGowan.
"I don't think Mark McGowan and anyone in the government knows exactly what's going on," Ms Jecks said.
"He actually goes over to Penguin Island quite often with his kids apparently, I've been told.
"But I personally don't think he realises the state of affairs. And, look, he's been a busy guy."
Buoyed by the recent success of a campaign to stop a marina development at nearby Point Peron, Ms Jecks hopes people power will create sufficient urgency to save the little penguins.
"How would we explain to kids when they ask in future, "Granny, why do they call it Penguin Island when there's no penguins?'
"This is avoidable. We're going to make it happen. I'm optimistic because I have faith in people."
