IN PICS: Iconic African penguin could once again roam De Hoop Nature Reserve 

Conservationists’ hopes of recreating a once thriving African penguin colony on the south coast of South Africa is one step closer to achieving its goal after 30 juvenile penguins were recently released at the De Hoop Nature Reserve. 

The humble, sassy African penguin is endangered, mainly due to a lack of food, with penguins having to compete with commercial fishing and inevitably losing the fight. 

This, coupled with climate change and a lack of safe breeding sites along the southern Cape coast, means penguins have been unable to change locations to find more food. 

Previous colony eaten

A lone caracal feasted on a small penguin colony at the nature reserve in 2003, which resulted in the penguins later abandoning the colony. 

Twelve years later BirdLife South Africa began investigating whether another colony could be established at De Hoop and partnered with CapeNature and the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) to make this a reality.

Predators remain a challenge at De Hoop so a fence was erected to ensure the penguins would be safe. 

BirdLife South Africa said it waited two years to test whether natural colonisation would happen. Life-like penguin decoys were deployed, complete with penguin calls playing on loudspeakers to encourage penguins to breed. 

A lifeline for the African penguin

On 11 June, the first penguin release took place. Most penguins were hand-reared from abandoned eggs at Stony Point penguin colony by SANCCOB. 

“We received an unusually large number of African penguin eggs earlier this year and it was a tall task to hand-rear so many chicks at once,” SANCCOB clinical veterinarian Dr David Roberts said. 

“Events like this one indicate the trouble that African penguins are in when extreme weather conditions and lack of food cause adult birds to abandon their nests to save themselves.

“The penguins are released as fledglings as they have not yet chosen a place to breed and once an African penguin starts breeding at a colony, they return there year after year. 

“By releasing fledglings we hoped they will return to De Hoop Nature Reserve to breed when they are ready to do so in three to six years,” Roberts said. 

The birds have all been marked with passive integrated transponders and two will be fitted with GPS trackers to monitor their movements.

BirdLife South Africa CEO Mark Anderson said the release was “a vital step to re-establishing this colony and will improve the conservation status of our iconic penguin”.