Over the past two years, a total of 148 juvenile African penguins have been released at De Hoop Nature Reserve in the Western Cape, as conservationists seek to establish a thriving new breeding colony of these endangered seabirds.
The penguins come from existing colonies where they had been abandoned by their parents as eggs or chicks and subsequently hand-reared by the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB). The project – carried out by BirdLife South Africa, CapeNature and SANCCOB – is in response to an alarming 60% decline in African penguin numbers in the last 30 years. The chosen site, which boasts an abundance of fish, was previously the home of a penguin colony that was wiped out by a caracal in the early 2000s. A predator-proof fence was installed at the site, and the first group of 30 penguins were released in June 2021. Five other groups have since been introduced.
Excitingly, adult penguins have arrived naturally at the site too, indicating that the area is ideal for sustaining a colony that will assist in expanding the range of the African penguin.
