- Title
- Successful protection against canid predation on Little Penguins (Eudyptula Minor) in Australia using Maremma guardian dogs: ‘The Warrnambool method’
- Creator
- King, Kristie; Wallis, Robert; Wallis, Anne; Peucker, Amanda; Williams, David
- Date
- 2015
- Type
- Text; Journal article
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/168928
- Identifier
- vital:13952
- Identifier
- ISBN:1944-6934
- Identifier
- http://www.universitypublications.net/ijas/0805/html/F5N121.xml
- Abstract
- The Little Penguin (Eudyptula minor) is the world’s smallest penguin, weighing up to 1.2 kg. It lives in coastal environments along southern Australia and New Zealand and breeds on sand dunes and rocky outcrops of islands and mainland sites where it can be safe from predation. Little Penguins have bred on Middle Island, Warrnambool on the Victorian coast in Australia for at least 60 years. In 1999 a survey found 342 active penguin burrows and a population of over 500 adult penguins breeding on the island. The colony was then subjected to intense predation by the introduced Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes), so that by 2005 only four birds were recorded arriving on the island to breed. Fox control methods proved ineffective and the colony seemed doomed to extirpation. However, since introduction of Maremma guardian dogs to the island in 2006, there has been an apparent cessation of fox predation of the island’s seabirds. This has facilitated a steady increase in the number of penguins breeding on the island. Data on the colony’s recovery are presented as well as a description of critical factors in this successful wildlife management process. Using guardian dogs to help protect threatened but heavily predated populations has become known as “the Warrnambool method for conserving wildlife”.
- Publisher
- Copyright © 2015 IJAS
- Relation
- International Journal of Arts & Sciences Vol. , no. (2015), p.
- Rights
- Copyright IAS
- Rights
- This metadata is freely available under a CCO license
- Subject
- Predator Management; Population Recovery; Livestock Guardian Dogs; Red Fox; Little Penguin; Eudyptula Minor; MD Multidsicplinary
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