The Western Australian Branch of the Statistical Society of Australia invites you to a presentation Little Penguins in WA: their ecology, management and conservation by Dr Belinda Cannell, Research Fellow at the UWA Oceans Institute.
Date: Tuesday 14 April 2026
Time: 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM (AWST)
Venue: Robert Street Lecture Theatre, The University of Western Australia
In person only event
Title: Little Penguins in WA: their ecology, management and conservation
Little Penguins on Penguin and Garden islands, 50 km south of Perth, are at the northern range edge of their distribution. The colonies are facing mounting pressure from several factors, including climate driven changes in food availability, increasing land temperatures, interactions with watercraft. But the threats are not always the same for the colonies that are only 10 km apart. The severe Marine Heatwave in 2011 is a case in point, where the impacts were more noticeable on Penguin Island.
Colonies are also found on islands in southwest and southern WA, but very little is known about most of them.
This presentation will detail the ecology of the Little Penguins from an almost 40 year study on Penguin Island and 24 year study on Garden Island, including foraging habitat, breeding success and causes of mortality. It will then briefly delve into the recent studies that have been conducted on a few islands in the southwest of WA.
Presenter: Dr Belinda Cannell
Dr Belinda Cannell is a Research Fellow at UWA and an adjunct research associate at Murdoch University and has dedicated more than 30 years researching the ecology of Little Penguins in Western Australia (WA), following completion of her PhD in 1994 (at Monash University, Victoria) where she studied the foraging behaviour of Little Penguins. Since then, Belinda has radio-tracked, micro-chipped, biologged, caught, counted, sampled and analysed thousands of Little Penguins across more than 15 separate projects on Penguin and Garden islands in the Perth region. She has monitored the breeding success and stability of the penguin colony on Penguin Island (1995-ongoing) and Garden Island (2001-ongoing), providing advice to state and federal agencies on the conservation management of the colonies.
More recently, Belinda has embarked on similar projects on data deficient Little Penguin colonies in the southwest of WA, investigating population estimates, habitat utilisation, annual breeding cycle, microplastic contamination and impacts of weeds. She has also investigated the populations and foraging ecology of other seabird species, including brown boobies, lesser frigatebirds and wedge-tailed shearwaters on islands in northwest WA, and all seabirds at Ashmore Reef.
Refreshments and Dinner
Members and visitors are invited to mingle over wine and cheese from 5:30 PM onwards at the venue. Following the meeting, all are invited to dine at a nearby restaurant. Visitors are welcome.
Venue details
The Robert Street Lecture Theatre (RBST[G16]; 272.G16) is located on the ground floor of the Robert Street Building (RBST; 272 General Purpose Building 2) at The University of Western Australia. Its entrance is near the north-eastern corner of the building. See: UWA Maps, Google Maps.
Parking is free on the UWA Crawley campus after 5:00 PM. A convenient place to park is Car Park 51, accessible from Fairway Entrance 1.
For further information please contact the WA Branch Secretary: ssa.wa.secretary@gmail.com
@StatSocAus
