By Esther Lauaki
Melton libraries need all the warm fuzzies they can get.
Residents are being called on to knit tiny jumpers as part of the Knits for Nature project for the penguin population at Phillip Island Nature Parks.
The hand-crafted rehabilitation jumpers will be used to keep warm, penguins that have been affected by oil pollution.
Penguin Foundation officer Lauren Barker said about 1400 jumpers are needed for the project.
“Oil pollution is a serious threat to little penguins,” Ms Baker said.
“When penguins become oiled, they will try to preen and clean the toxic oil from their feathers, ingesting it can kill them.
“It also damages their delicate feathers which exposes their skin to cold temperatures and they are left cold, heavy and unable to swim or hunt for food.”
She said 438 penguins were affected by the last major oil spill near Phillip Island in 2001.
Of those, nearly all were successfully saved with the help of penguin jumpers.
Anyone keen to participate can knit a jumper and drop them off at the front desk at Melton library.
Collections will close at the end of the business day on October 31.
The pattern can be found at: bit.ly/2Ik49vR
