VIDEO: Durban resident highlights plight of African Penguins
On African Penguin Awareness Day conservationists raise awareness on the flightless bird and speak to conservation challenges.
ON Saturday (second Saturday of October) the world marked African Penguin Awareness Day to raise awareness of the flightless bird and bring home the conservation challenges facing them.
The species, which is endemic to Southern Africa’s coastline, is listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with as few as 19 000 mature penguins in the wild.
Members of the SA Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR) in Durban have been doing their part by spreading information on African Penguins while also explaining how people can help with conservation efforts.
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Another person doing this is uShaka Sea World’s Kelly de Klerk, the assistant curator for mammals and birds at SAAMBR, who explained the significance behind the day and a few facts on penguins.
“At SAAMBR uShaka Sea World, we have a colony of over 55 birds we look after. Sadly through a myriad of factors, climate change, habitat loss and overfishing, the penguins are now at risk of being functionally extinct in the wild. The simple fact is we’ve lost 90% of the population, there’s less than 10 000 pairs left. In fact there are more African Penguins in captivity or under human care than there are in the wild,” she said.
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