Extract from ABC News
A little penguin was sighted at Vivonne Bay in the 2025 survey. (Supplied: Kangaroo Island Landscape Board)
In short:
The adult population of little penguins on Kangaroo Island is estimated to be 704 after the latest survey.
It is an increase on the record low numbers recorded in 2024, but still only about half of those recorded in 2011.
What's next?
Researchers say ongoing monitoring will be important in the wake of the harmful algal bloom.
There were once potentially thousands of little penguins making their home on the picturesque and rugged Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia.
But it can be a tough life for little birds which stand only about 30-centimetres high as they battle human interference, feral cats and other land and sea predators, as well as the lingering impact of the harmful algal bloom.
The survey team looking for signs of active burrows amongst the rocks. (Supplied: Kangaroo Island Landscape Board)
The island's fragile population has rebounded in 2025 after an historically low survey count in 2024, but their numbers remain at nearly half of the numbers recorded in 2011.
The Kangaroo Island Landscape Board's coasts project officer, Alex Comino, said 352 active burrows were found when the survey was conducted in October last year.
This number is doubled to give an estimate of 704 adult breeding little penguins.
The number of birds recorded in spring 2024 was 540 — the number recorded in 2011, when an initial island-wide survey was conducted, was 1,348.
Little penguins often make their burrows in rocky crevices as they have done here at Stokes Bay on Kangaroo Island. (Supplied: Kangaroo Island Landscape Board)
Eight active colonies were surveyed, including the largest at Emu Bay and Penneshaw. The colonies at Cape Cassini, Western River Cove, Snellings Beach and Brown Beach, with no activity detected in the past few years, were excluded from the survey.
Ms Comino said while the results were encouraging and the numbers "are looking good", it would take a number of years to see the full impact of the algal bloom.
"We know that in conjunction with the HAB (harmful algal bloom) we also had a marine heatwave which can impact seabirds and their prey behaviour over time," Ms Comino said.
Ongoing work needed
She said it was important to keep monitoring the population to look for longer trends, particularly as the survey only recorded numbers of breeding adults but did not gauge breeding success.
Alex Camino (left) and other staff from the Kangaroo Island Landscape Board have been working with the community to revegetate areas used by the little penguin colonies. (Supplied: Kangaroo Island Landscape Board)
The algal bloom is known to have negatively impacted the survival of sealion pups on the nearby Pages Islands in their 2025 breeding season, due to lack of food for feeding mothers.
Ms Comino said although squid, which forms a large part of the little penguin's diet had been badly impacted by the bloom, they also feed on pilchards and sardines, which were more able to swim away from the expanse of algae.
"[It's] just good to see that there's some resilience there, some flexibility … they seem to be eating enough," she said.
"We certainly didn't see lots of worryingly skinny penguins or anything like that."
One of the little penguin chicks observed by the survey team in 2025. (Supplied: Kangaroo Island Landscape Board)
The largest colony at Emu Bay recorded 332 birds, which is the highest number ever recorded, and Penneshaw — where tourist penguin tours are conducted — recorded 206, the largest number since 2012.
However, Ms Camino said, historically, the population had been much higher.
"I've had loads of locals talk to me about decades ago they used to have penguins walking up and down the street and you couldn't sleep for the noise but it's certainly not recovered to those sort of levels yet."
The number of little penguins was surveyed across eight colonies on the island. (Supplied: Kangaroo Island Landscape Board)
The largest town on Kangaroo Island is Kingscote and its penguin population has been surveyed longer than any other.
It was recorded as having 868 birds in that colony alone in 2007 but that number dropped to 38 in 2024 and 64 in the most recent survey.
Behavioural ecologist and little penguin expert with Flinders University Dr Diane Colombelli-Negrel said while it was "great" to see the increase in numbers, she agreed that ongoing surveys would show if there was a pattern of recovery.
Diane Colombelli-Negrel has been studying South Australia's little penguin population for more than 10 years. (ABC South East SA: Caroline Horn)
"We'll have to see if that continues in the future, but at least it's bringing hope that there could be some increase, even though the numbers are still lower than those [in that] very early census,"Dr Colombelli-Negrel said.
She said it was great to see a similar trend recorded on both Kangaroo and Granite islands in 2025.
"We'll have to see what the future holds, but it's good to hear that they're both slightly increasing at the moment," Dr Colombelli-Negrel said.
Multi-generational help
Kangaroo Island's little penguins are much loved by the residents and visitors to the island and Ms Comino said this was reflected by the number of people helping with weeding and revegetation works and an increased awareness of the need to keep dogs away from the birds and pet cats indoors.
Young environmental leaders on the island, Brad and John, are helping to install artificial shelters for the colony at Emu Bay. (Supplied: Kangaroo Island Landscape Board)
Students from the Young Environmental Leaders program have been working alongside volunteers from the Rotary Club of Burnside to refurbish older artificial burrows and install new ones at Emu Bay.
Volunteers and council workers have also been working on removing introduced weeds like African boxthorn and kikuyu grass, which can block the entrance to burrows, and replacing them with native vegetation.
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