Have you ever caught yourself thinking: why has the population of African penguins dwindled by 73.33% since 1956?
African penguins: adorable and endangered.
The answer is: lots of reasons including oil spills, food scarcity, habitat degradation and human harvesting of penguin eggs and guano. Here at the Aquarium, our resident colony of African penguins is part of the AZA Species Survival Plan to maintain a healthy population of penguins in the United States.
Over in South Africa, an organization called SANCCOB is leading the way in studying, rescuing, and rehabilitating wild African penguins. Through their Chick Bolstering Project, SANCCOB biologists monitor African penguins in the wild and bring abandoned, injured or starving chicks in for care. Together with colony managers, they also rescue and hand-rear eggs that have either been abandoned by their parents or when the adult penguins were found nesting in areas outside of the protected colony area. Last year Monterey Bay Aquarium Aviculturist Monika Rohrer journeyed to South Africa to volunteer with SANCCOB.
Monika tends to rescued penguin chicks at SANCCOB’s Cape Town facility.
“One thing that stuck out to me was the sheer number of penguins [at SANCCOB],” says Monika “There were so many birds that needed help.” The organization took in 497 African penguin chicks in 2015, and about double that in 2014. To help SANCCOB care for its penguin patients, professional seabird caregivers from zoos and aquariums around the world come every year to volunteer.
Rescued penguin chicks at SANCCOB. Chicks may be abandoned by parents either during oil spills, when they struggle to find food or due to the parents going into molt.
It’s hard work! Monika tended to a section of about 150 penguins every day. Here’s what daily care for a rescued penguin means:
Working with 150 rescued penguins every day gave Monika an opportunity to use husbandry skills that she doesn’t always get a chance to practice when looking after our colony of 18 penguins, such as tube feeding a sick penguin. “The experience I got there was invaluable,” she says. “It was absolutely beneficial. And it helped conserve penguins, which is what we’re all about.”
Monika was one of many volunteers from zoos and aquariums around the world.
In order to be released back into the wild, rescued penguins at SANCCOB must:
Be able to swim for at least an hour
Not be habituated to people
African penguins face many threats, but programs like SANCCOB’s Chick Bolstering Project provide hope for their population. Monika was able to see rehabilitation at work firsthand. “Penguins are so hardy, it’s incredible,” she says. “One adult we released only had one foot and had been at SANCCOB for over a year, but made it through all the tests and was able to return to the wild!”
Release day! Farewell, penguins!
This World Penguin Day, learn more about SANCCOB’s work with African penguins and how you can help! You only need to look at recent conservation successes for sea otters and green sea turtles to see that #ConservationWorks.
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