Volunteers and environmentalists are hoping to learn more about St Kilda's iconic little penguin population through an expanded research and monitoring program.
About 1,400 little penguins live at St Kilda beach in Melbourne, with most of them nesting in the breakwater off St Kilda pier.
Access to the colony's habitat has been restricted since the pandemic and more recently due to renovations at the pier.
Flossy Sperring is the research coordinator at Earthcare St Kilda, a volunteer-run group that has been monitoring the penguin population for more than three decades.
She said the little penguins, which are the smallest penguin species in the world, have had a long break from visitors since the pandemic began in 2020.
"The crowds that were coming out onto the colony were pretty intense, and so I think it was a welcome relief for the penguins," she said.
Their annual research program has also been paused while access to the area is closed.
She said it had given them time to rethink its ongoing monitoring project and they have recently been awarded a $42,000 grant from the Victorian government to redesign it.
"The thing about this colony is that they're actually incredibly hard to monitor," she said.
In previous years, volunteers would come out and catch penguins, microchipping some of them and weighing chicks.
"They are cute to hold, but they really don't like it," she said.
"That's actually one of the reasons why we want to change up the monitoring program, to see if there's a way that we can do it that doesn't actually involve getting hands-on with the penguins."
"If we can get a good monitoring program, we can accurately detect any declines and then that we can lead to different action to figure out what might be going on."
Plant guards to help penguin nests
Neil Blake is the Port Phillip Baykeeper with the Port Phillip Ecocentre.
He has been involved with planting around the penguin colony since the 1980s but has recently come up with a new invention — a penguin-proof planting guard.
He said the penguins use the plants for nesting material.
"Rounded noon flower grows very successfully out there, as long as the penguins don't get to it too quickly, before its roots can be established," he said.
The boxes, funded by a $7,000 government grant, are specially designed so the birds will not get caught in them and so their beaks don't reach the plants before they have proper roots.
"Unless we allow the plants to establish properly, we're always going to be constantly planting and [the penguins] are going to be pulling it up," he said.
They will start trialling the plant guards when access to the breakwater re-opens.
Revamped penguin viewing area and pier to open in 2024
The state government said the St Kilda pier works were due to be finished in 2024.
"We're going to ensure that people will continue to be able to come and view the little penguins but do it safely for themselves but also for the little penguins," Environment Minister Lily D'Ambrosio said.
"We were really pleased to be involved in the design of the new breakwater and new boardwalk," Ms Sperring said.
"Soon the penguins will be not sharing any paths with people, and that's going to be a huge relief for the penguins."
Ms Sperring said there was even a pause on Earthcare's full-scale monitoring, which involved checking nests to make sure the birds were not being impacted by the development.
Mr Blake said it was great to see how the penguins could help educate others and would keep doing so once the visitor area re-opens.
"They really are fascinating creatures, quite extraordinary," he said.
"They are an icon that we can use to educate people about the health of the bay, so that they might change their own personal behaviours to do the right thing by the environment."
