A consignment of emergency woolly jumpers have been sent to the Australian island of Tasmania to help protect a colony of penguins from oil spills.

Hundreds of volunteers started knitting when a conservation group warned that Australia's population of fairy penguins - also known as little blue penguins - was under threat.

About 1,000 of the jumpers, which cover the penguins from neck to foot, have been specially knitted, based on a pattern provided by the Tasmania Conservation Trust.

"They have come from everywhere, even as far away as Japan," Trust spokeswoman Jo Castle said on Monday.

"Someone in New York asked for a pattern, but we haven't received it yet," she said.

Protection from toxins

The penguins, which are indigenous to Australia, live on a small set of islands near a shipping route and are often hit by oil slicks.



