Little Penguin for this Winter

Sightings anywhere within a 250 km radius of Toowoomba, but excluding the local survey area (see above), for the period 1 June 2011 - 31 August 2011.

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Rod Hobson
Posts: 509
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2006 8:03 am

Little Penguin for this Winter

Post by Rod Hobson »

Folks,

Last week I received a few very interesting e-mails from fellow QPWS and Marine Parks employees and friends regarding some interesting visitors to SEQ waters of late.

From an avian perspective and just scraping into our 250 kilometre limit was a find accompanied by several very good photos of a Little Peguin from Great Sandy National Park. It was first discovered by a member of the public on the 04th. August waddling up a vehicle track in the dunes at the Beagle Campground at Inskip Point. It seemed in pretty good nick but was taken into charge by QPWS staff from Rainbow Beach who then passed it to a wildlife carer. The penguin will be rehabilitated south after it gets a clean bill of health from a veterinarian.

Another record of note accompanied by photographs was of an Australian Fur Seal (Arctocephalus pusillus) seen off Hervey Bay on the 10th August. The seal was identified by pinniped authority Dr. Simon Goldsworthy as a juvenile of this species. This is a very rare visitor to SEQ waters where it's Kiwi cousin the New Zealand Fur Seal (Arctocephalus fosteri) is much more frequently encountered.

The other interesting record was information on, and photographs of a male Cuvier's Beaked Whale (Ziphius cavirostris) found dead and derelict on Fraser Island on the 21st. July. This animal, which is one of the 21 species of the world's beaked whales, is essentialy a deep water denizen rarely found in inshore waters. The skeleton of this whale was salvaged by the Queensland Museum for their reference collection. It is only the fourth specimen and first of a male that they have of this rare cetacean.

All great stuff. I do miss my Fraser Island days.

Regards,
Rod Hobson
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