This is an offensively misrepresentative title, the kind of stuff that conservative climate deniers will spin to their favor. As you wrote they "decided to buy every piece of property on the Summerland Peninsula and return the land to the penguins. The process was completed in 2010." Fake news world will spin this into a quasi-military takeover...
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If all animals had the the same sort of appeal penguins promote in humans there would be many more of these sorts of projects. In environments dominated by humans, characteristics like vulnerability, whimsy and cuteness increase the chance that people will revise destructive behaviors. These penguins definitely have evolved those genes.
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Eminent Domain for the greater good.
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Never in America were land ownership is sacrosanct
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It would be useful to learn how many other little penguin colonies exist along the Australian (including Tasmanian) and New Zealand coastlines. Eradicating predatory alien species on Phillip Island is possible thanks to the narrow isthmus that can be fenced off entirely. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the penguins are practically extinct in those areas not amenable to predator eradication and fencing.
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I went to Phillip Island on my honeymoon and saw the penguins several years ago, it was a magical and unforgettable experience to which I look forward to taking our son next year.
Huge kudos to the Aussies and in particular Ms. Kirner for making this happen. Every once in a while we see a wildlife story that is heartening rather than the opposite. May that happen more often in the years to come before it's too late.
"Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened." - Anatole France
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My husband had relocated for a job in Australia in 1979. We went to see the penguins and I am happy to see they are still there. Very nice story. Thanks
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Unfortunately that was the 1985 government I doubt the present government would be so inclined. Yes our parents were better than us.
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A great story with beautiful photos.
I have been to Antarctica where we saw if not "billions and billions" of penguins but at least hundreds.
And last year, I was in Chile to sail on Magellan Straits where they take you to a "penguin colony" - luckily this colony is far away from any human habitation. But there too, Chile has set aside areas for these birds to come ashore.
Though Chile penguins number no more than tens as compared to this Aussie colony.
I commend State of Victoria with this effort.
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I have visited this penguin community twice on visits to Australia. In our most recent visit in April, we learned about the extraordinary measures being taken to protect the community. It is not accurate to claim that the dismantling of a residential community deserves full credit for the success of the penguin community because it is only one of many measures that were taken.
The emphasis on the dismantling of a residential community is typical of the misanthropic attitude toward conservation. Humans are often inappropriately blamed and unnecessary access restrictions are often imposed. Here is a study about penguins that was recently published by Economist magazine that did not find evidence (using chemical analysis of penguin poop) of increased stress on penguins as a result of increased visitation by humans to their communities: https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2019/07/11/contrary-to-the-fears-of-some-penguins-and-people-do-mix
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Each of us can do our part save the nature! Reduce your meat consumption drastically. That will depress global cattle industry that is wiping off Amazon Forests to grow crops for cattle feed. If our demand for meat is decreased substantially, there will be no need to create more farm lands in Amazon jungles.
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@Jaque
I was told it is not just Amazon countries, Australia is also equally guilty of wiping out vast stretches of natural land for cattle operations. So reducing meat in our diet will have far greater impact worldwide!
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"A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold would be a fascinating read if you liked this story and are interested in preserving our environment. You can find the book at your local library or easily on-line, new and used. It is an easy read.
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Excellent conservation accomplishment by Australia!
Several nations of Africa could follow this example to protect their incredible wildlife.
By the attacks of poor farmers and poachers, the elephant populations are now less than 25% of those thriving just 10 (ten) years ago. Over seventy five percent are gone.
It's devastating to see this intelligent, long-lived species go under.
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This is so refreshing to read.
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Am reading this in Melbourne and thinking I should drive to Phillip Island this weekend. Haven’t seen the penguins in years and it’s a magical experience. Thanks for the reminder, NYT.
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@Kristen No need to leave Melbourne, you can see them at St Kilda!
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I am so happy that we could see them in the parade in front of us and that they will probably continue to do so in the years to come. Cheers, mates!
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I would gladly move out of my house to save a species that was being driven to extinction because of my presence and applaud Australia for bringing back the penguins and other birds to this area.
They really didn't say in the article that they killed all the foxes that preyed on the penguins.
Australia like New Zealand, imported foxes (for fox hunting), dogs, cats, rats and mice that have been feasting on their native plants and wildlife. New Zealand is in much worse shape than Australia. Besides the cats, dogs, and foxes, New Zealand imported rabbits, stouts and Australia possums, which have put most of their birds, especially the flightless ones, on the verge of extinction.
I visited a site in NZ where they put mirrors next to albatross nests so they can see stouts and possums sneaking up on them before they kill them and eat all their eggs. A farmer had also built little hutches for the penguins on his farm because he destroyed all their habit for sheep farming. Terrible.
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What an inspiring read!
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Groovy,
Totally groovy.
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I'm sure all the supportive commenters here would gladly leave their homes to save penguins.
Visiting the Little Penguin Parade is well worth it. The centre is very informative of the penguins life cycle. Many viewing platforms. You can also visit the Seal colony further down the road.
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Good for you Australia..Animals depend on us for their survival and care.
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Great article. There also used to be a (very) small colony on the foreshore in Portland Victoria, but that's long since gone.
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I went to Phillip Island to see the penguins in 1980, and returned in 2000. These were memorable days. With the new visitor center and 2020 coming up, I guess that it's time to go again. If you go, don't miss the koala reserve on the way.
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I grew up near Melbourne and viewed the parade several times. I've also sailed through dense schools of the penguins feeding near the surface. The species' common name may be the little penguin but no one called them that. Victorians know/knew them as fairy penguins. Glad to hear their terrestrial habitat is being protected but I worry that changes in ocean temperature and circulation may render the seas near Philip Island unsuitable for them.
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@Humanist
I wondered about the name while reading this, so thanks for confirming these are the same as the fairy penguins I saw at Victor Harbor south of Adelaide some 20 years ago. It was a chilly night for us there, but once the penguins started hopping up the rocks the crowd couldn't have been more transfixed. Glad to hear they're being protected in Victoria.
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Its truly incredible - the penguin parade - watch hing these tiny birds hat swim miles offshore come home with food for their young ones is incredibly moving - and hilarious - given their juxtaposition of their plumage and earnestness.
Three decades on - now the Aussies are now building a port to shop coal in the middle of the great barrier reef. The penguins are fortunate there was no fossil fuel around Melbourne.
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What a wonderful story, one that I hope is replicated in many countries. This comes from the past Australian Government.
Meanwhile, the current government just approved an enormous coal mine near the Great Barrier Reef. A mine which may prove the death of the reef and greatly contribute to climate change.
My, have times in Australia (just like the US) have changed.
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@BMD
Sorry - it didn't occur through the actions of the "Australian" Government (ie the federal one in Canberra).
It was the foresight of the Victorian STATE Government (in Melbourne), under its Premier Joan Kirner. This should have been made much clearer at the beginning of the article.
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What an amazing and inspiring story! Thank you, and long live the little penguins.
"It is thought to be the only instance in the world in which an entire community has been purchased by a government for the sake of environmental and wildlife protection."
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What a novel idea to restore Nature to it's glorious past. Now, if we could do the same to save swamps (not the political one's, mind you), wetlands, estuaries that reflect the beauty of mother Earth, and part of our survival, why not make it our task to return to Nature what was never ours, to begin with?
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A wonderful, uplifting story of a conservation success. Kudos to the Australians for making this happen!
Once small quibble. Penguins don't have breeds, as they are not domesticated animals. People create breeds when they domesticate animals and "breed" individuals together to promote certain characteristics. We have one species of dog, but countless breeds from Yorkshire Terriers to Irish Wolfhounds. These penguins are a species of penguins, not a breed of penguins.
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Great place to visit. Keep in mind that the story has developed for 50 years or more. government doing what people want over time.
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@ Ed-
Government doing what people want? Gee, what’s that like?
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This is great. Good for this community.
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One colony from ten. With great, great, effort we can manage to save a fraction of a fraction of a single species.
The only way to preserve a fraction of a fraction of our ecology is to do something about human population growth.
This worked because the residents could go somewhere else. By 2050 there will be 11,000,000,000 people on the planet. Climate change will have devastated large regions of the planet. Where will people go to save a fraction of a fraction of anything?
Things are hopeless unless human population dramatically decreases. The planet cannot sustain the 7,700,000,000 people on the planet. 31,000 penguins could be eaten by a small town of humans in an hour.
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The microchip scanner looks like a microphone. I, for one, would like to know how the little penguin (great name, by the way) feels about all this. Missed opportunity.
For a species that is inherently mobile, we sure do get attached to small pieces of land. Think of how the penguins felt when their house was obliterated and they started being chased by foxes that shouldn't've been there. Boo hoo. Hurrah for penguins and fixing environmental errors.
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Just fantastic!
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A few generations of humans hardly trump’s the thousands of years this was penguin territory.
Australia, few guns and now this. Wonderful.
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Reminded me of an older NYT article about the little penguins of Middle Island and their sheepdog protectors
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/05/world/australia/australia-penguins-sheepdogs-foxes-swampy-marsh-farmer-middle-island.html
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wow. what a lovely story in the face of all the horrible news this week.
I love this story. I've never been to see the tiny peguins but I've only missed them by a few miles. My next trip to Australia, I'll make sure to go.
Maybe humans aren't so terrible after all.
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Buying back houses and guns. Incredible.
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Kudos to the Australians!
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Good on ya, Mate.
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There are many opportunities in the United States for such conversions. Lands in the Mid-West that are continually flooded could be purchased from the owners and restored. Likewise, lands that are feed up by people who have decided to leave ranching in northern tier states like the Dakotas and Nebraska could be purchased and restored to Buffalo Commons. There is plenty of restoration opportunity in our own back yard.
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@annie,
And this restoration included the eradication of an invasive species (fox).
We can help restore our own environment through the eradication of wild horses. They are non-native species that compete for resources that native species need.
7
Such an inspiring story! Living in today's America makes this story seem like a dream, something that couldn't possibly be true.
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This is one of the most beautiful success stories I've ever read. So many of our fellow humans don't seem to realize, or care, the extent to which our activities are pushing the natural world toward oblivion. Mammal, bird, fish, reptile and amphibian populations have dropped 60% since 1970 according to the WWF. The beauty of it though... and the frustration of it... is that wherever we somehow decide to stop the relentless pressure, nature will so often bounce back. Nature gives SO MUCH HOPE and yet human selfishness takes so much hope away.
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In my home state we persuade our elected leaders to remove protections of habitat or antiquities in the pursuit of greed.
When I look at the five national parks and numerous other monuments or historical sites that were designated in the days before Trump, I ponder, what would happen if those places were on the list to be targeted by Trump and our corrupt GOP state lawmakers in their need for greed.
Aside from that, it is encouraging that we still have governments who have a vested interest to keep the ecosystem from further degradation and their attempts to right a wrong.
21
So human beings CAN understand that we share this planet with other creatures, and can act effectively on this understanding, even when painful, financially or otherwise.
Now that we know that such wisdom is indeed possible, we need visionary leadership to turn this world around before we-- and all the other creatures-- perish.
Whether or not that happens will be either a triumph or a failure of human imagination. We've an awful long way to go, yet this article gave me hope that we are at least capable of learning from our mistakes, and acting on behalf of the common good.
Thank you.
30
This is wonderful. I have been very dismayed lately by the amount of endangered species in the U.S. and very little enthusiasm to help save them. The all mighty dollar comes first as always. It seems if you want to get anywhere with convincing people to help them, you have to talk in terms of how saving a certain animal will actually help humans, or they are just not all that interested, this is just my experience. I am shocked that the removal of homes actually happened! Bravo! There may be hope!
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@C. Bernard I was never motivated by money, status, or conspicuous consumption, and have long felt a moral duty to other living things. Yet, years ago, I simply had to accept that people don't all like the same things or have the same motivations. It is what it is. My job is to use what motivates them to accomplish what is right or needed.
The HS where I taught (2000 students) had an ineffective recycling program, largely because lots of teachers disparaged the recyclers as "tree huggers." I figured they were extrinsically motivated, so I researched the economics of recycling. We paid $50/dumpster for trash, but only $40/month for all we could recycle. Further, for every year added to the lifespan of the city landfill by recycling, taxpayers saved $2 million. Since city recycling efforts had begun, we'd saved $54 million. (Annual savings are now $4 million - big bucks for our city!)
Money is always tight in a public school, and the potential savings was significant. And the folks who were anti-recycling tended to be tax-hating conservatives. I made my sales pitch at a teachers meeting.
In the next week, I had requests for 250 recycling containers! Throughout the year, we placed another 100 containers. During finals week, when the kids were cleaning out lockers and ditching notebooks, we filled the recycling bins/roll-offs at LEAST once a day AND salvaged hundreds of like-new pencils, pens, binders and notebook paper.
A grand success! Gotta meet people where they're at!
7
To Save Tiny Penguins, This Suburb Was Wiped Off the Map
This article shows how us humans can help endangered animal species. I love this article because it shows how we can make a difference when it comes to animals’ habitats and feeding grounds. The government is there to help the people and animal of it’s country and that is exactly what happened. The government took the initiative to step in and care for these poor penguins and in the end it helped them flourish. The help of the scientist and animal experts allowed the penguins to have a home and also allow the people of Summerland Peninsula to still have their breath taking view of these tiny penguins without the risk of harming them.
18
This is great. I wish more politicians showed this amount of commitment and compassion.
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@Evil Overlord Joan Elizabeth Kirner AC was an Australian politician who was the 42nd Premier of Victoria, serving from 1990 to 1992. A Labor Party member of the Parliament of Victoria from 1982 to 1994, she was a member of the Legislative Council before later winning a seat in the Legislative Assembly.
6
Actually, I think this is pretty darn cool
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A fantastic example of bold visionary governing. Humans can move their homesteads; penguins can't. And now Australia makes more money off the penguins than the surburbia.
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Some 20 years ago I was thrilled to tears by the fairy penguin march on Phillip Island and also near Dunedin in New Zealand. The tiny penguins are so intent on getting to their burrows. I'm so glad both countries are still protecting them.
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@Suzanne
Yes, they were fairy penguins when my family and I watched them in the early 1980s. When did they become little penguins?
4
How wonderful and inspiring! The magical species will be seen and admired by many coming generations of humans. Who says Governments cannot do useful things?
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@kant
This story reminds me of the Austin Congress Avenue Bridge bats. City spent a lot of time trying to kill them and then realize what a tourist attractions they are. Now the million plus bats are watched by bus loads of tourists and the city is happy with the money they bring in.
25
Thanks for a wonderful and uplifting story. People can move, penguins can't.
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