HANNA AND THE PENGUINS

The job of assistant curator at an iconic local tourist attraction comes with surprising access to some secret little lives, writes Kate Taylor. Hanna Geeson has, quite literally, a pretty cool job.

Words by Kate Taylor. Pictures by Angela Hayward.

18 As the penguin keeper at the Ballarat Wildlife Park, she spends her days looking after the colony of little penguins that has called Ballarat home for nearly two years now. It was a move for the penguins, of course, but it was also a move for Hanna, who left her Melbourne home to live and work (and love it) in a regional setting.

The process used, however, to determine the relocation of these penguins is an intriguing story. Their move to Ballarat, it turns out, was picked from a book by a higher guiding hand. Yes, there is an actual book – a penguin stud book that details where all the little penguin colonies are located throughout Australia. Because this species has declining numbers, these flightless birds are managed by an Australasian coordinator who decides which penguins can go where, in order to keep breeding and genetics at an optimum level.

“It’s so that there’s no possible inter-breeding or anything like that,” Hanna explains. Ballarat has added to what is probably the world’s cutest book, too, with 10 chicks having been hatched at the park since the colony was first established in June 2017.

“A good breeding season is a promising sign for us; it means our penguins are happy,” Hanna says. “It takes 35 days for the tiny, cute, fluffy chicks to hatch. When they emerge from the egg, they are slightly smaller than a domestic hen’s chick and weigh about 40 to 50 grams. After eight to 10 weeks, they’re fully grown (about 1.2 kilograms) and are ready to hit the water.”

When Hanna begins her working day each morning, 20 little penguins waddle up to her looking for their breakfast. “As soon as they see me, they know. They come shuffling in because they know that food is coming,” Hanna says, smiling. “Then I do a head count. They are completely safe here, but in the wild they are quarry for large birds of prey, as well as for cats, dogs and foxes, and I do head counts throughout the day to make sure that each one of them is safe and accounted for.”

After a morning of cleaning up, Hanna leaves the penguins to splash about in their pool and then tends to the management of the park’s other wildlife – for her, mostly the koalas, snakes and wombats.

Hanna’s day also includes giving a penguin presentation, which involves feeding the birds their lunch in front of adoring audiences and telling the penguins’ story.

“They love their food and they’re always hungry,” Hanna explains. “They get fed again at 4 pm and then they take themselves off to bed – except for the younger ones who have no idea what to do. I’ve had to jump in the pool and usher them in, saying, ‘Right, off to bed now.’ ” As far as the weather goes, Ballarat is the perfect climate for them.

“They’re the same penguins as the ones at Phillip Island,” Hanna explains. “They used to be called fairy penguins, but they're known as little penguins now, and they’re the smallest of any penguin species in the world, so their current name is more accurate. They’re found all along the southern coast of Australia, so the temperature here is perfect for them.

“They love it. And there is also a colony that happily survives on St Kilda beach, so they are pretty hardy. They can tolerate temperatures ranging between zero and 40 degrees Celsius. “And in Ballarat, some of the penguins – the confident ones, especially – take no notice of the weather and are out in the public exhibit, splashing around in the pool as soon as there is an audience.”

It’s almost as if the job couldn’t get any cuter – or cooler. But the climatecontrolled part of their environment isn’t quite as cool as imagined.

“They have access to an off-display area, and it’s kept between 10 and 30 degrees Celsius,” Hanna says. “It’s kept at varying degrees to correspond with the outside weather conditions. Penguins are very seasonal birds, so there’s a lot of temperature gradient. They have access to the nesting boxes at all times, and have a completely stress-free lifestyle.”

Well, almost. Hanna has a very diplomatic way of speaking about the penguins’ “stress free” environment away from the public eye.

“They are such characters,” she says, which is about when Hanna’s job goes from “penguin keeper” towards more “reality TV show commentator”. “Little penguins have the highest divorce rate of any penguin species. And at this time of year, which is our pre-breeding season, we have many interesting scenarios around the nest boxes.” Just think of Married at First Sight, but produced by David Attenborough. “Right now, Lisa has broken up with her boyfriend, Badger, and she’s got together with Malachi, and Malachi is now in the process of breaking up with his girlfriend, Lany, so he can be with Lisa,” Hanna explains.

Malachi, how could you?

As Hanna describes it, they all have unique personalities and develop their own little cliques. “It’s a whole little drama story in there. They’re really quite sensitive creatures.”

And Hanna loves them for it. Even though the penguins wear coloured bands to help tell them apart, she easily names all 20, and they even know their own names, coming when Hanna whistles.

“They’re like family. I spend five days a week with these little guys, and they honestly have the most beautiful personalities,” she says, fondly. “I’m not allowed to have favourites, but amongst them there are those that love to come and cuddle me, and others that prefer to bite me! These little penguins have sharp beaks and strong wings as they need the strength to push themselves through the water; they can also use them to wing-beat at people if they’re not happy.”

Aside from the occasional winged smack-down, the penguins are generally friendlier at the wildlife park than they would be in the wild. “They are a lot friendlier in captivity. They’re very different; they get to know you and say ‘hi’. The wild ones, however, don’t want a bar of you,” Hanna says. Hanna knows a lot about wild little penguins. She has volunteered to work with them on Phillip Island, in particular with one of her friends who was completing a PhD on the birds.

“I have worked with them in the wild, and I’ve studied marine biology and marine conservation. I’ve just started my PhD in conservation biology, and it’s based on Australian Fur seals,” she informs me.

Hanna, how could you? Every documentary featuring penguins also shows them being eaten by seals. “Penguins make up a very small portion of their diet,” Hanna insists. “And anyway, it’s good to know about predator-and-prey interactions.”

Hanna works part time on her thesis so that she can continue to work full time with the penguins at the wildlife park as well as with the latest member of her park family, Squish the kangaroo joey. “I’ve just finished handraising Squish, who is my baby. She’s 12 months old now and she still loves cuddles,” Hanna says, dotingly. “So my life is animals, which is just the way I want it. I wouldn’t swap it for the world.”

The Tiger Sanctuary

The newest members of the Ballarat Wildlife Park family are Maneki and Satu, two Sumatran tigers. Since arriving at the park earlier this year from the Australia Zoo, where they were handraised, the tigers have quickly become a popular attraction.

Sumatrans are the smallest of the world’s tiger breeds, with Maneki weighing in at a ladylike 83 kg and the more masculine Satu at 120 kg.

Both Maneki and Satu have now settled into their new home and can be visited between 10am and 2pm daily.

Location: Cnr Mair & Armstrong St Nth

Opening Hours: Monday - Friday 9am to 5pm Saturday 10am to 2pm

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