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Hundreds of penguin chicks die as winter takes its toll
Themba Boyi | 1 Hour Ago

The Addo Elephant National Park says this week’s cold front has taken a toll on African penguins’ breeding colonies in Algoa Bay.

At least 480 chicks have frozen to death on Bird Island between Tuesday and Wednesday.

The African penguin’s declining population has resulted in it being re-classified, as "endangered".

The birds are in their breeding season at the moment, and the chicks are between a few weeks and two months old.

The Park’s spokesperson, Megan Taplin, said the young birds aren’t well insulated.

“…they only have the down covering and that’s no protection from cold and wet weather at the same time.”

She said rangers on the Island had been trying to save as many chicks as possible after getting more than 20 mm of rain overnight on Tuesday.

“They’ve been trying to drain the nests that have filled up with rain … and then they’re also using things like old pipes to just put down on the ground over the penguin chicks to provide them some kind of shelter.”

African Penguins are currently the focus of extensive conservation action which is being conducted
by a number of organizations in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape, and a concerted effort will be
needed to lift this embattled penguin from its precipitous population decline. “BirdLife South Africa’s
conservation work on the African Penguin is being funded by the Charl van der Merwe Trust and
Diemersfontein Wine Estate”, said Anderson. “Along the coast of Namibia and South Africa (the only
current breeding sites for the species), only seven islands now support 80% of the global population
which decreased from 141 000 pairs in 1956-1957 to an estimated 25 262 pairs today, representing
a decline of 60.5% over three generations”, explained Dr Ross Wanless, the Manager of BirdLife
South Africa’s Seabird Division.