Cape Town - About 65 African penguin chicks were rescued from Dyer Island this week by the African Penguin and Seabird Sanctuary (APSS) with the help of CapeNature.
The chicks will be fed and rehabilitated at the sanctuary as not one chick could be afforded to be lost to starvation as the species continues its terminal decline in population.
In the rescue operations, 48 African penguin chicks were retrieved from parents that were unable to feed them as needed on Dyer Island on Saturday, November 5 and on Tuesday, November 8. Another 16 were retrieved and sent to the sanctuary where they would be fed and rehabilitated.
CapeNature marine and coasts specialist Deon Geldenhuys explained why these chicks needed to be rescued.
“All penguins need to go through a moulting stage (feather shedding) once a year. During this stage, adults stay on land for 21 days due to the fact that they are not waterproof and rely on their fat reserves during this process. As a result, if they have young chicks they will not feed them because they need their fat reserves to survive the moulting phase.”
Geldenhuys said the African penguin population had declined to less than 3% of its historical levels in the wild, which was why it was critical for management authorities to rescue these chicks and ensure no chicks were lost due to starvation. If not rescued, they would definitely die.
As the managing authority responsible for Dyer Island, CapeNature identifies the African penguin chicks that need to be rescued and with the assistance of APSS these chicks get captured and thereafter sent for rehabilitation.
APSS conservation manager Trudi Malan said: “Penguin chicks must be healthy, strong and able to swim and hunt for their own fish before they can be released. This can take anything from three weeks to a month or two, depending on their age and health.”
APSS was a temporary rehabilitative care facility started by the Dyer
Island Conservation Trust (DICT) for marine birds with a special focus on the endangered African penguin, whose numbers were at an all-time low with only 13 300 breeding pairs left in South Africa.
DICT spokesperson Christine Wessels said: “Removing underweight chicks and chicks of moulting parents, and hand raising them is but one part of the bigger African Penguin Biodiversity Management Plan.”
Wessels said their bird ranger, Eduard Drost, on Dyer Island monitored every single penguin nest and could immediately see when parents abandon the nest and the penguin chicks go unfed.
“Those are the penguins, the weak, underweight, timid ones, that we take off the island, to feed and rehabilitate at the sanctuary,” Wessels said.
Wessels said the APSS needed support for the twice-a-day feeds these penguins required and appealed to the public to help by donating through www.dict.org.za/donate