A recently released report from the 2nd International African Penguin Conservation Trust revealed that the population of African Penguins has reached a historic low, with only 26000 breeding pairs left here in Southern Africa, which is their only home.
Alarmingly, this decline has been accelerating over the last few years and fall rates have now reached 2.34% per annum.
Not enough studies have been conducted yet to tell researchers exactly why these ghastly declines are being recorded, but they suspect that a regional shortage of the penguins’ food, chiefly anchovies and sardines, is at the bottom if it.
This shortage could be the result of any number of things, the most likely culprits being overfishing, fish stocks moving with changing ocean temperatures due to global warming or a buildup of pollutants in the water over the years. Fur seals are also becoming a bit too enthusiastic in their hunting efforts, suitably cool breeding places are becoming harder to come by and of course, the constant risk of oil spills casts a dark shadow over the survival hopes of all penguins in this area.
Our friends at the Dyer Island Conservation Trust are doing everything they can to encourage breeding and stop these disappearances. One measure the’rey taking is to build and provide suitable nesting sites, which the Penguins seem to enjoy, as their breeding successes have been shown to be higher in these than in their natural nests.
But even with the success of DICT’s love nests, they still acknowledge that the real solution to the problems can only come from research. Only when they better understand the direct causes of the decline will they able to tackle the fishing industry for example, or lobby for a greater conservation area for breeding colonies. So once again, the power lies with knowledge!
You can help the Dyer Island Conservation Trust’s Faces of Need campaign by purchasing a penguin’s nest or making a donation to their all important research. Go to www.dict.org.za for more information.
Alternatively, just keep up with your extra maths and science lessons so that one day you can work directly with conservation researchers fighting for the preservation of the African Penguin and other treasures of Southern Africa’s spectacular wildlife!
Penguin Tutoring strives to provide personalised tutoring and mentorship. We hand-pick and match a tutor to the exact needs of the family we are assisting. In a South Africa with such a diverse range of cultures, religions, and opinions, we are faced daily with such challenges. However, in our search for the enhancement of education, sometimes unorthodox measures need be put in place. So, we salute our tutors who have bridged cultural and racial divides, and found commonality in learning and education.
