Middle Island, Fairy Penguin Colony.

While away visiting my mum in Warrnambool, I wanted to get some amazing shots of Middle Island.
The history of this place is something else and here is my version of it.
It is the home of the worlds smallest penguin, The Fairy or Little penguin.
Once there were loads of these little guys living there and were used as a food source for natives, early whalers, sealers and settlers, back in the day.
In 1999, there was a estimated, 860 of these birds living on the island but by 2005, that number had dropped to just 10 due to the island being connected to the mainland, via a sandbar at low tide, that allowed foxes to make their way to the island and decimate the population. That and to many people wandering around the island and crushing the nesting borrows of the penguins.
In 2006, the island was closed to people to help protect the penguins and, through the suggestion of a local chook farmer who had used Maremma dogs to protect his free range chooks from foxes, the “Maremma Project” began by introducing these dogs to the island during breeding season. These dogs bond with the animals and birds they are used to protect and defend them like they were a part of their own family. Good for the penguins, not so good for the foxes. Since the introduction of the dogs to the island, no fox kills have been recorded and the penguin populating started to bounce back from the brink.
By 2013, the estimated population of fairy penguins had come back to 180 individual birds. 10 years on and their population varies but it has been hard for the people monitoring the island and the penguin numbers due to covid restrictions and the times when it has been safe to get to the island, due to tidal times and the availability of volunteers.
The good thing is that now, the little penguins of Middle Island, have a chance of surviving for a long time to come, due to the intervention of the most unlikely hero's, Maremma dogs, as guardians and protectors of this amazing little bird.
The 2015 movie, Oddball, was based on this island and the dogs that protect it.
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