You will have seen in today’s Manly Daily that every one of the seven penguins at Federation Point were killed over the weekend, 3 breeding pairs, Romeo and Juliet, Pirate and Pearl and Mr. & Mrs. Clochard plus their chick, a late hatchling from the colony’s first clutch.

We found out by accident from a passer-by at Ocean Care Day three days after the killing. Those three bodies were visible to the public and were picked up and taken to the zoo by a ranger, one more was picked up on Saturday and three further bodies which had been hidden in crevices were picked up by the penguin wardens on Sunday night. We were shocked to find out for ourselves, we only came to investigate the story we had been told by a stranger at Ocean Care Day.

It was a bit of  a shock after all of the good penguin publicity on the work of our Penguin Wardens that there was such a communication gap, staff at National Parks and Council didn’t seem to know  what had happened even as late as Monday morning.

Most of the bodies we saw were intact and didn’t look ‘mauled’ at all, especially Juliet on the ‘Balcony’ looked just as though she was sleeping.

Also, the witnesses, who had seen two of the initial three bodies lying on the big flat rock, said they looked unharmed, as though they were looking at each other, with one flipper raised.

How did they get up there? I have never seen them on that rock?

National Parks are appealing for any information people may have about the deaths and they have retained two forensic scientists to get to the bottom of the killings.

In the meantime, provisional autopsy results from Taronga Zoo look as though all penguins were killed by one large to middle-sized dog.

Help us find the culprits. If you know anything or anybody who might have seen or heard something please contact:-

Manly Environment Centre on 9976 2842 or National Parks on 131555