A decline in little penguin numbers on the East Coast, is not being echoed on the North-West Coast.
The North-West has major rookeries at Stanley, Burnie, Penguin and Lillico, which are showing no decline in numbers.
The Bob Brown Foundation and the Tasmanian Greens say the dramatic decline in numbers on the East Coast, particularly at the Bicheno rookery, is symptomatic of climate change.
However, local experts on the North-West Coast say little penguin populations on the North-West Coast are determined by food supply.
Food availability on the North-West Coast is said to be adequate to sustain Coastal rookeries at this stage.
The Department of Natural Resources and Environment estimates there’s around 400,000 breeding pairs of little penguins in Tasmania, with more than 90 per cent of them located on off-shore islands and not the Tasmanian coast.
