Return of the little penguins: Bicheno colony rebounds after ocean heat spike

They vanished without warning over summer, leaving locals stunned. But now Bicheno’s beloved little penguins have returned in droves. VIDEO HERE >>

Little penguins are back in big numbers at Bicheno after an unprecedented disappearance over the summer.

Bicheno Penguin Tours operator Nic Wardlaw said the penguin’s disappearance coincided with a spike in ocean temperature.

“In mid-January, mid-December, it went from that sort of 17 degrees mark, up to 19 pretty well overnight and the penguins virtually disappeared exactly at that time,” he said.

Mr Wardlaw said they were advised by ecologists that the warmer waters impacted the penguins’ food supply, sending them out into deeper water, abandoning the summer breeding season.

Little penguins have returned to Bicheno

Monitoring the local penguin population, Mr Wardlaw said they went weeks without seeing a single penguin.

“It was a bit of a shock really,” he said.

“We saw everyone scratching their heads and not really knowing what was going on.

“There was some speculation that perhaps they might have died because of that increased water temperature and getting anecdotal evidence of birds being washed ashore at different places.”

Little penguins have returned to Bicheno

But with the water temperature returning to where it should be at this time of year, Mr Wardlaw said it was encouraging to see the penguins return “en masse”.

“We’ve jumped up to 60 last night and that’s been pretty consistent for the last three weeks,” Mr Wardlaw said.

“That’s the sort of numbers we’d expect during pre-summer breeding when they come back and start preparing to breed and prepare burrows.”

Relieved at the return of their beloved penguins, the community has come together to advocate for respect and education.

Calling it a “silver lining” of the decline, Mr Wardlaw said people were paying more attention to avoid interfering with the penguin populations.

“Most of the information we try to get out to people is that they’re vulnerable and they’ve got to be very aware of that,” Mr Wardlaw said.

With winter bringing their sunset tours forward to 5pm, Bicheno Penguin Tours are excited to be operating again in the off-season.