African penguins of South Africa’s coast are starving. Overfishing has depleted sardines — their main food source. Despite larger protected areas, populations keep shrinking. The risk of extinction is rising.
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At the start of the 20th century, millions of African penguins lived along South Africa's coasts. Today, only around 10,000 remain. Guano extraction and the mass collection of eggs caused populations to collapse dramatically by the mid-1900s.
Today, overfishing is driving their decline. With sardines — their main food source — increasingly scarce, many penguins are starving. Larger marine protected areas are meant to help, but they have sparked conflict with local fisheries. Meanwhile, conservation groups are rescuing and rehabilitating weakened birds.
South Africa's penguins fight for survival
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, African penguins are now threatened with extinction. South African animal rights activists want to save the birds.
Image: RODGER BOSCH/AFP
Last of their kind
In October, the International Union for Conservation of Nature classified the African penguin as critically endangered. The flightless birds, seen here resting on the beach at the Boulders penguin colony near Cape Town, South Africa, were previously considered "only" endangered. Threatened by pollution and construction, they're also at risk of diseases like bird flu.
Image: RODGER BOSCH/AFP
Threatened by food shortages, climate change
However, the biggest threat to the penguins is food shortages, said marine biologist Allison Kock. "So many of the penguins are starving and are not getting enough food to breed successfully," she told the AFP news agency. Commercial fishing is depriving the animals of food, but climate change is also playing a role, shifting ocean currents and redirecting fish shoals.
Image: RODGER BOSCH/AFP
Extinct in the wild by 2035?
It's estimated there are fewer than 10,000 breeding pairs worldwide, down from 42,500 in 1991. Penguins often give up breeding if they can't find enough food, preferably sardines or anchovies. Researchers fear that by 2035, spectacled penguins, among them the African penguin, could therefore be completely extinct in the wild.
Image: RODGER BOSCH/AFP
Penguin patients
But animal welfare activists in South Africa are trying to help. They catch the animals to examine them for injuries and illnesses and, if necessary, help them before they are released back into the wild. In a special hospital for seabirds in Tableview near Cape Town, the little patients can even be X-rayed.
Image: RODGER BOSCH/AFP
Stars of the beach
The South African government also has an interest in ensuring the survival of the penguins. Thousands of people come to watch the birds every year, like here in Simon's Town. South Africa earns several million US dollars a year from penguin tourism, an important economic sector. Since their inclusion on the Red List, the spectacled penguins have been even more in the spotlight.
Image: RODGER BOSCH/AFP
Do not disturb!
However, this increased attention is a double-edged sword, as penguins are very sensitive. "The level of disturbance, people with selfie sticks, it's becoming more and more of a challenge," said Arne Purves, Cape Town's coastal protection officer. But there's at least been one success: from January, fishing will be banned in the vicinity of six South African penguin colonies, until at least 2035.
Image: RODGER BOSCH/AFP
Every penguin counts
However, animal rights activists have criticized the fact that the planned exclusion zones are too small — and that something needs to change in the long term. "No matter how much we do, if there isn't a healthy environment for them, our work is in vain," said veterinarian David Roberts, who works at the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds hospital.
