Our colony of Little Penguins have called Diamond Island Resort home for hundreds of years.
Little Penguins – also known as Fairy Penguins – are native to East Coast and Southern Australia, there is also a heavy population in New Zealand and they have been documented in places like Chile and South Africa.
Year round, every night at dusk, Diamond Island Resort welcomes the Little Penguins to the beach and into our Resort. They nest, lay their eggs and raise their young on-site, here at the Resort. Although shy, they are curious creatures – and sometimes they even pay our guests a visit!
The breeding program for Little Penguins is a year round process. Females’ sexual maturity generally comes at two years of age, with males at three. The males will typically renovate and prepare the nest, then compete for a partner to mate with. A couple will remain faithful during the process until eggs are hatched. A breeding female will usually mate yearly.
Depending on what time of year you stay with us at Diamond Island Resort, will depend on what you may discover – from the mating season, to laying of eggs and raising of young chicks as this diagram shows:
Every night, we welcome up to 70 Penguins from the beach at Diamond Island (varies night by night), however the entire Tasmanian population of Little Penguins is estimated to be somewhere in the vicinity of 110-190,000.
Here is a snapshot of the Little Penguin:
Diamond Island Resort loves sharing our home with these amazing animals in their natural habitat and welcomes our guests to join us nightly in welcoming them ashore!
Our resort is one of the very few eco-tourism establishments around the world where guests get such an up close, safe and unique experience with nature!