'Penguin parade' undergoes vaccinations for bird flu

The nightly parade of penguins on Phillip Island is a tourist favourite, but has recently taken on a more serious tone.

As the little penguins toddled up the Victorian beach on Sunday night, many were corralled into pens to receive the first of two vaccinations against bird flu.

The H5 strain of bird flu first reached Australia's shores in June and is already confirmed to have claimed the life of one of the penguins in the colony.

With case numbers on the rise, authorities have stepped in to do what they can to defend the 5000-strong colony of little penguins living on Phillip Island, southwest of Melbourne.

The penguin's nightly ritual of returning the same burrow, along the same path, made them ideal candidates for vaccination, said Phillip Island Nature Parks reserve manager Ben Thomas said.

Being a world-first in terms of scale, the process has taken some experimentation and fine tuning.

"We've had our teams out late into the night for a week now and learning a lot along the process," Mr Thomas said.

"We started on some of the quieter penguin pathways to fine-tune the whole process and and get it working as quickly as we can, so we can process as many penguins as we can each night.

"We've now moved to the western end of the penguin parade, where the larger numbers are, and it's working really well."

After they clamber out of the water onto the beach, the "rafts" or smaller groups of penguins are caught and corralled into holding pens.

"Once we're satisfied we've caught all the penguins we can for that night, we then start ... moving them from the holding pens to a handler, who then weighs and measures the penguin," Mr Thomas said

"We then microchip it, vaccinate it, and then release it on its way back home to its burrow," Mr Thomas said.

The penguins aren't always too happy about the process and require some practice to get used to handling.

"They are feisty little animals. You do go home with a few bites and scratches."