Rescued injured penguin carrying egg

A PENGUIN rescue has turned into so much more for the SA National Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob) veterinarians who discovered through an X-ray that the waddling bird is carrying an egg.

The African penguin was spotted in distress on Robben Island on Monday after she was caught in a piece of fencing wire that had hooked into her leg, probably while she was crawling under the fence.

A Sanccob penguin ranger on the island was able to cut the wire to free her, but did not remove it from her leg as it would have been painful and potentially dangerous.

He informed Sanccob and then cleaned the wound and gave her fluids to treat her symptoms of dehydration.

Sanccob clinical veterinarian Dr David Roberts said the wire was removed under anaesthetic. “She was X-rayed to see if there was any further damage. She luckily was not badly injured by the wire and on X-ray we could see she was nearly ready to lay an egg,” he said.

The penguin is being kept in ICU at Sanccob, in her own pen with a penguin nest box.

“She will be closely monitored until she lays her egg, while continuing medication. She would not be able to incubate the egg or raise the chick in captivity, and we would not be able to return her to the wild with the egg. Therefore, if the egg is fertile, it will be moved to the Sanccob chick-rearing unit and placed in our penguin egg incubator until it hatches. The chick will then be reared alongside other rescued penguin chicks until it is ready for release,” Roberts said.

The NSRI assisted with transport to the mainland.

NSRI Table Bay spokesperson Pat van Eyssen said they were called out just after 11am. “Rangers on Robben Island had found the penguin injured with a wire embedded in its leg. They had captured the penguin and alerted Sanccob, who asked NSRI to collect the bird on their behalf,” Van Eyssen said.

If you find a seabird in distress, contact Sanccob’s 24-hour sea bird rescue centre in Cape Town on +27 21 557 6155 or +27 78 638 3731 after hours. To donate visit https:// sanccob.co.za/donate.php