63 dead penguins appeared on a South African beach, leaving experts baffled
Birds had been stung around their eyes and flippers, areas not protected by feathers
The feathers over the penguin’s body are densely packed and it’s unlikely the bees stings could have penetrated through these feathers.”
The killers littered a South African beach with dozens of bodies and disappeared, leaving a massacre and a mystery.
The culprits were unknown until experts looked more closely at the 63 African penguins found dead last Friday morning on Boulders Beach near Cape Town and discovered stingers in their eyes.
A veterinarian returned to the scene and spotted what had escaped investigators’ eyes on first pass: many more bodies scattered on the ground — tinier ones this time.
Plot thickens
The penguins died suddenly between Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, according to a statement from South African National Parks. Veterinarians, penguin experts and government officials rallied to investigate but found no obvious injuries. The bodies of the African penguins, so named because they’re the only species of penguin that breeds on that continent, were taken to the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds for post-mortem examination.
Sheer bad luck
The penguins had been stung around their eyes and flippers, areas not protected by feathers, Alison Kock, a marine biologist with the national parks agency, wrote in a statement to The
Washington Post.
“The feathers over the penguin’s body are densely packed and it’s unlikely the bees stings could have penetrated through these feathers,” she wrote. “On the other hand, the skin around the eyes and flippers have no feathers and the stings could penetrate in those regions.”
Katta Ludynia, the conservation foundation’s research manager, said they’ve never seen bees attack the African penguin, or any penguins for that matter. She characterised the massacre as unprecedented and “bad luck for the penguins.” “This is a complete freak accident,” she told NBC News Now.
Bees the culprit
As part of the post-mortem exams, scientists took samples from the penguins’ bodies for disease and toxicology testing. They were still being tested on Saturday when the national parks agency sent out a news release, but officials say they believe the bees’ nest was disturbed, causing “a mass of bees to flee the nest, swarm and they became defensive and aggressive,” Kock wrote in her email.
Alison Kock | Marine biologist