Biology

The Little or Fairy Penguin (Eudyptula minor) is the smallest member of the Spheniscidae (penguin) family. They are native, warm-blooded aquatic animals.

They literally 'fly' under water thanks to their short wings modified into paddles and short legs at the rear of their body and is capable of staying at sea for a month or more at a time. They will range over many hundreds of kilometres to find sufficient food to trigger the right body condition for breeding.

Little Penguins become sexually mature at 2 or 3 years of age and come ashore primarily to breed and moult. They dig burrows on islands or at cliff bases where they are safe from land-based predators. Around the Sydney Harbour foreshore the Little Penguins frequently build nests between rocks.

They generally return to their birthplace in order to breed.

Little Penguins sleep standing, in the water or lying down. They tend to take a lot of small naps rather than one extended sleep.