ecobud™ is a 100% Australian based and Australian owned company who are committed to protecting the environment and sustaining our ecosystems. The Little Penguin designed water bottle by ecobud™ was inspired by the little penguins in southern Australia.
The Plight of the Little Penguins
The Penguin Foundation which was established in 2006, estimates that there is only one million little penguins left with 32,000 of them living on Philip Island. The little Penguin (also known as the fairy penguin) is the smallest species of penguin and is about 33cm tall and 1.5kg in weight.
The little penguins live and breed along the coastlines of southern Australia and New Zealand and have been known to live for up to 25 years. Whilst they are not considered to be an endangered species, over the past 10 or 20 years many little penguin populations have been considerably reduced and some have even been wiped out entirely.
The main threat to the little penguin is from predators such as seals, domestic cats and large reptiles.
Saving the Little Penguins
The population of little penguins on Middle Island in Victoria were nearly decimated due to predation by red foxes, an introduced species, that entered the island on low tide. The little penguins were saved by the introduction of Maremma sheepdogs to guard them. These sheepdogs were historically bred to protect goats and sheep in Europe. They guard their flocks or herds by bonding with the animals as puppies, rather than herding them by nipping and biting.
The two current guard dogs were socialised and bonded to the little penguins as eight week old puppies and have been guarding the island and penguins during the breeding season for four years. Since their introduction, the little penguin population has increased rapidly from 4 birds in 2005 to 187 in 2013.
The Penguin Foundation
The foundation was established in 2006 to protect Australia’s little penguin. Since then the Foundation has raised over $1.5 million to help save the little penguins by:
- Building new nesting areas,
- Monitoring their health,
- Protecting their environment,
ecobud™ is a 100% Australian based and Australian owned company who are committed to protecting the environment and sustaining our ecosystems. They have partnered with the Penguin Foundation to help save the little penguin. For every little penguin designed water bottle sold, ecobud™ will contribute 5% of the proceeds to the Penguin Foundation – protecting the little penguins of Phillip Island, Australia.
