Penguin Island - A Heatwave Hits the Colony

Documentary about the penguins who live on Phillip Island. A punishing heatwave hits the island. As bushfires are raging around the state, penguins are collapsing from heat, hunger and exhaustion. The penguin study group finds many heat-stressed penguins and, as the animal hospital fills with overheated wildlife, rangers work to rehydrate and cool the little penguins in a battle to save their lives. With food in short supply, the colony's penguin chicks are struggling to build the body weight they require to head out to sea and, with 80 per cent destined to die in their first year, the stakes are high in the fight for survival. A volunteer arrives with an overheated penguin chick, underweight and close to death, but Mauve proves to be one of the lucky ones as wildlife carer Marg Healy steps in to keep him alive. With his younger brother dead and his parents gone for good, little Sammy must survive 'Black Saturday' to brave the world alone, taking his first tenuous steps towards independence and a life beyond the breaking surf.