Little penguins incinerated in 'unfortunate' island burn-off (AU)

[Donna]

It is the second time a man-made fire on the island has killed penguins. A controlled blaze in 2001 burnt about 40 to death.

''Clearly something has gone wrong here,'' said the chief executive of RSPCA NSW, Steve Coleman. ''We're bewildered as to why the standard practice of inviting our inspector along wasn't followed this time.''

The National Parks and Wildlife Service has been conducting regular burn-offs in the last decade to destroy the invasive kikuyu grass and replace it with native shrubs.

The matted kikuyu grass is known to strangle the little penguins, which only grow to about 43 centimetres in height, so the burn-offs have probably saved many more penguins than they have killed, said the head of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Sally Barnes.
THIRTEEN penguins burnt to death when a weed reduction operation on Montague Island bird sanctuary went wrong.

Despite the death of the protected little penguins, the Environment Department initially called the burn-off a success.

It is now investigating the incident and trying to establish why the RSPCA, which usually attends controlled burns on the island off the south coast, was not invited to monitor last week's fire which struck the biggest colony of little penguins on the east coast.

''Certainly we wouldn't want to downplay the deaths,'' she said. ''The staff involved followed the protocols and everyone involved in these operations are animal lovers, so it is very unfortunate.''

The guidelines for conducting the burns did not say the RSPCA had to be present when they took place, Ms Barnes said. There had been a small number of penguin casualties in previous years but nothing like the 2001 death toll, she said.

The NSW opposition environment spokeswoman, Catherine Cusack, said the burn should not have gone ahead because sniffer dogs, which would have been used to locate and move the birds from the path of the fire, were not available.

About 12,000 little penguins are said to live on Montague Island.

[Bird Crazy]

 

[Annette]

A very sad story.