PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Without skipping a beat, 14 little “happy feet” raced down Plettenberg Bay’s Lookout Beach and into the ocean during the final release of these flightless birds for 2018.
As soon as their enclosure gate was opened, seven rescued African penguins – rehabilitated at a local centre – sped down a stretch of beach towards the waves without hesitation. They bobbed around in the water long enough for the crowd of about 200 curious onlookers to enjoy their journey, before swimming away.
This release held on Saturday 8 December was the sixth of its kind this year as a collaboration between the Nature’s Valley Trust, Birdlife SA and various other role players, and it forms part of an initiative to counter dwindling African penguin numbers.
In Plettenberg Bay these penguins are found feeding around the coast and often wash up on local beaches. This is due to factors such as dehydration, exhaustion, arrested moult or illness.
Most of the penguins found in the Southern Cape are believed to be from the Port Elizabeth penguin colony and have ended up in the area on their quest to find food, which appears to be plentiful in the Plett area while other areas are showing signs of food-source dwindling.
“The seven penguins suffered from various ailments from disease and injuries to moulting and exhaustion. There was one adult penguin and six juveniles,” Nature’s Valley Trust director Dr Mark Brown said.
Once rescued from local beaches, these birds are rehabilitated at the Tenikwa Wildlife Rehabilitation and Awareness Centre on the outskirts of Plettenberg Bay where they are nursed back to health and released back into the wild.
Brown said in the 1950s there were about 141 000 African penguins, but 60 years down the line there are only 19 300. Some of the main causes for this decline include overfishing by commercial fisheries for fish such as sardines, anchovies, and herring. Another major cause is habitat destruction caused by an increase in urban sprawl and historical overexploitation. This includes the extraction of eggs and nesting material used by humans for fertiliser.
Brown said although this was the final release of the year, they were already scheduling another for February next year. “This is a continuous effort,” Brown said.
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