Of the southern coast of Australia, there lies a magical island.
It's tiny and beautiful and it's home to a very special penguin.
The little penguin, as the name already says,
little penguins are small.
Very small.
In fact, they are the smallest penguins in the world.
They live mostly in the ocean, but for resting and nesting,
they come ashore, mostly at night because that's safer.
For decades, Middle Island was a safe haven for these little fellas.
Hundreds of them arrived here during breeding season.
But then, without any warning, predators made their way across from the mainland.
Within months, the colony decreased from 800 to just four individuals.
The island's little penguin population was on the brink.
But this is not how the story was supposed to end.
Middle Island's little penguins managed to make a surprising comeback,
and credit for this goes to a local chicken farmer,
ambitious conservationist,
and an amazing team of white knights.
Their remarkable work has been such a success
that there is even been a movie made about it.
“There must be some way to scare off these foxes”
But let's start at the beginning and explore
why protecting little penguins is such a big job.
Decades ago, hundreds of little penguins lived on Middle Island,
a rocky fist of land down on the southern coast of Victoria.
Here, the little penguin colony was flourishing
and the ground was dotted with dozens of penguin burrows.
Middle Island was one of the few habitat pockets that were left for the species.
Why? Well, in 1800 European settlers,
had brought foxes with them,
this invasive species started preying on little penguins,
and the birds vanished from the mainland.
Islands where the only safe places left for the little fellows.
Unfortunately, Middle Island is really close to the mainland.
It's only about 200 meters from the shoreline of the city of Warrnambool.
Beginning in the late 1990 and early 2000s,
tidal patterns and sedimentation slowly began to increase here.
This combined with a very low tide, made the island accessible
from the shore at certain times of the year.
In short, during specific time slots, humans
could easily walk to the island and so could four legged predators.
And this is exactly what happened in 2004.
The low tide allowed foxes to cross to the island and attack the little penguins.
In a single night, foxes eliminated half of the penguin population.
The saddest thing, this mass killing was just the beginning.
Now that the foxes knew the penguins were easy prey,
the toll kept rising and rising.
Within a single year, the island's penguin population,
which had once numbered 800, had been almost wiped out.
Not a single burrow was left intact.
But local chicken farmer, Swampy Marsh, was still optimistic.
He suggested that
Maremma dogs could help protect the penguins on Middle Island.
Previously, Swampy had successfully used Maremmas to help
protect his 5000 free range chickens from fox predation and
penguins are just chickens in fancy dinner suits.
A unique idea was born.
However, the practical implementation wasn't easy at first.
A lot of paperwork needed to be done.
And there was another big issue:
Dogs were not allowed on Middle Island, but since there were only four birds left,
Swampy’s idea was the only chance the little penguins had.
Luckily, the Warrnambool city council gave it a try. The island was closed to the public.
The no dog signs were removed and farmer
Swampy and his dog Oddball arrived on Middle Island.
The two immediately got to work
and they totally changed the history of Middle Islands little penguins.
It was exactly as Swampy had predicted.
Putting a dog on the island has changed the foxes pattern.
Swampy and Oddball did a great job.
So great that their work was soon professionalized and the Middle Island Project was born.
Someone who knows every single detail about this special project
is Lillian Maher.
Hi, everyone. My name is Lillian and I'm the Middle Island Project officer here in Warrnambool.
The Middle Island Project is a very unique project that uses Maremma guardian dogs
to protect the little penguins and other seabirds over on Middle Island.
This was really a world first in terms of conservation.
Talking about first: Eudy and Tula, named after the scientific term
of the little penguin, Eudyptula minor, where
the first Maremma dogs trained as guardian specifically for this project.
Together they protected the little penguins and saw the colony
increase to an estimated 180 birds.
Between 2006 and 2017
while, Eudy and Tula were guarding the island,
there was no evidence of fox attacks, and after Eudy and Tula retired,
their success story continued:
No, no, no.
Penguins have been killed while the dogs have been over on Middle Island.
And today, the method is known as the “Warrnambool method for conserving wildlife”.
But how does it work?
How do Maremmas protect the penguins?
The current dog team, which consists of Mezzo, Isola and Oberon, will show us:
First the most important thing is that these white guardians are on the island,
so the three of them regularly cross over to Middle Island all year round.
Their first stop is always the beach.
Here the dogs spread their scent all over the shore.
Afterwards, they patrol the borrow region and then go up to the boardwalk.
Although it might sound like it, the dogs actually don't need to kill foxes every day.
Basically, the dogs
just have to hang out on the island and spread the scent around.
If the fox is still brave enough to come closer, they know exactly what to do.
So they will start barking and have a very deep, scary bark.
If the dogs needed to, they would chase.
The team work in pairs, one dog would be enough to keep the penguins safe,
but there's always another buddy here,
so the lead guardian has a friend for company.
On the island they stroll around, play and bark.
The team around Lillian makes sure that the dogs have everything they need
“Let’s go feed them!”
and that they also take off a few days per week.
Well, this seems like the hardest part for the dogs.
Maremmas are workaholics and just love to guard.
The dogs, which are originally from northern Italy,
bond with the territory and protect everything that's in there.
Adults can grow up to 60 kilos, so fighting off a fox
isn’t a big deal for them.
But they are used to protect livestock.
So when it comes to wildlife, they need to adapt their skills a little bit.
Starting as puppies, the dogs undergo an intense training program.
Young ones learn from older guardians how to become penguin protectors.
Their hard work is paying off the penguin population
has consistently gone back up since the dogs arrived on Middle Island.
And the penguins haven't only got great new guardians,
but they've also got cool new houses for nesting.
The manmade burrows give the birds more support
and they have another advantage.
It also helps from the monitoring side of things
because natural burrows can be up to two meters long.
I certainly can't reach two meters into a burrow, but I can stick my arm
into a nest box that sort of 50 centimeters is by 50 centimeters.
And the penguins? Do they care about the monitoring or the dogs?
Did the Maremmas appearance on the island change the birds behavior?
Well, little penguins literally don't care about dogs,
but that's okay, because the only thing that's important is that they are safe
and that future generations can waddle safely to their burrows,
when arriving home at night.
Don't forget to check out more of this from our new series.
It's linked right here.
And if you want to support the Middle Island Project,
please just follow the links below.