Greens MP Tammy Franks is calling for a temporary curfew on Granite Island to allow the endangered colony of Little Penguins a better chance to breed and grow.

She says the numbers of penguins did recover slightly during COVID lockdowns.

In a speech to Parliament on Thursday she urged the government to take action.

“It doesn’t have to be permanent but at least two years; not just one year but two years so this population – as it did under COVID – can start to bounce back,” she said.

A census conducted last year found that there were 20 Little Penguins resident on Granite Island.

According to a 2007 PIRSA report there were 800 breeding pairs on the island in 2001 but this had reduced to 300 pairs by 2005.

A count conducted in 2012 recorded 30 penguins on the Island with the population then reduced to 12 in 2019 after a fox attack.

A Flinders University report published in June this year found a strong link between the fall in numbers and the effects of the Millennium drought and the lack of freshwater inflows from the Murray. This lack of freshwater had a major impact on the penguin population’s main food source.

Little penguins are generalist feeders that rely mainly on clupeidae fish species, such as anchovy and pilchards