As I’ve said in previous posts, there are only 20,850 breeding pairs of African penguins in the wild as of one month ago. That’s it. Three and a half years ago, when I first started my undergraduate research, that number was approximately 30,000.
Where am I getting these numbers from? The latter comes from the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), whose page on African penguins was last updated in May 2018. The former comes from a recent paper published in January 2020 in which researchers determined the extinction risk of the global African penguin population according to International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) criteria [1]. They also assessed rates of decline by countries as a whole and individual penguin colonies within each country [1].
The researchers discovered that the penguin populations in South Africa are steadily declining by 5.1% per year, while the population in Namibia is more stable, only decreasing by 0.1% per year [1]. Within South Africa, the penguin colonies in the West Cape have lost 10% of the population per year over 20 years [1]. This large loss reflects a decrease in African penguins’ prey availability in the west, which is at the center of their breeding grounds [1]. The drastic decline in West Cape penguins means that most of the penguin population resides on the Eastern Cape of South Africa, a common route for shipping vessels [1].
To me, this study is both devastating and hopeful at the same time. It clearly shows how quickly the African penguin is disappearing, yet also pinpoints key areas where changes in conservation management are needed.
If you want to help the African penguin, you can symbolically adopt a penguin at an Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) accredited zoo.
References:
- Sherley RB, Crawford RJM, de Blocq AD, Dyer BM, Geldenhuys D, Hagen C, Kemper J, Makhado AB, Pichegru L, Upfold L, et al. 2020. The conservation status and population decline of the African penguin deconstructed in space and time. bioRxiv, 1-20. Accessed from: Google Scholar.
- Seiphetlho, N. L. African penguin. South African National Biodiversity Institute. 2014. Available from: https://www.sanbi.org/animal-of-the-week/african-penguin/
CCC
The Penguin Researcher 