Across from Station Beach, at Lion Island, is one of Sydney’s two remaining colonies of Little Penguins. The colony on Lion Island is protected as an endangered population with Lion Island also a protected nature reserve listed on the Australian National Heritage List.
The Island is hard to access and largely predator-free, but a bushfire sparked by a lightning strike tore through about 85% of the penguins’ habitat in 2018. Additionally, a recent study by Carlile & Smith (2017) has suggested that the colony on the Island may have declined by as much as 50% in the last two decades.
In 2012, penguin researchers observed that penguins’ feeding trips from Lion Island were much longer than those taken by the population on Bowen Island in the Jervis Bay Territory. As Station Beach is in close proximity to Lion Island, and with little penguins swimming around Pittwater waters, it is plausible to assume that dogs could adversely impact this population.
The little penguins, like Station Beach, must be conserved for future generations!
Pittwater Online – Little Penguin Colony