Endangered African penguins released
SEVENTEEN African penguins were released on Saturday during the 4th Annual Penguin Palooza in Betty’s Bay, hosted by CapeNature and the SA National Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob) at the Stony Point penguin colony.
The event sought to raise awareness of the critically endangered African penguin.
Of the released penguins, 14 were young African penguins – 13 of them were abandoned chicks due to moulting parent birds; one was a juvenile penguin with a fractured left fibula and laceration; one adult penguin was a recaptured underweight bird originally rescued from Simon’s Town and found again at the Waterfront; as well as another adult penguin admitted from Stony Point with a laceration on the stomach.
There are 10 African penguin breeding colonies in the Western Cape, the main ones are situated on Dassen Island, Robben Island, Simon’s Town, Stony Point and Dyer Island.
But the species has declined by over 60% in the past 30 years, and by over 50% in its three most recent generations, according to the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF).
“Despite the implementation of the action plan linked to the 2013 Biodiversity Management Plan, the aim to halt the decline in the species has not been successful.
“It is, therefore, necessary that the plan be revised and extended to operate over from mid-2019 to 2024,” DEFF said.
Sanccob researcher Lauren Waller said “there’s a trend of rehabilitating fewer oiled birds and rehabilitating more chicks, particularly in the Western Cape. But at our Eastern Cape centre in Port Elizabeth we have had two oil spills in 2016 and 2019, where 200 and 150 African penguins were oiled, respectively, as a result of bunkering activities.”
The main reasons sea birds are admitted for rehabilitation at Sanccob centres include abandoned chicks, injuries, trauma, underweight, poor condition and pollution.
Waller urged the governments to “make every effort to ensure adequate food availability for the African penguins during the various phases of their life cycle and continue to implement actions that reduce the mortality of African penguins, both in the breeding colonies and at sea.”
Society also has a responsibility to “positively engage with and support the government and NGOs in the protection of this species, and evaluate their own lives and see how they make choices to reduce their negative impact on the environment, for example by buying only fish harvested sustainably, and avoiding the use of plastic which is endangering ocean life.”