Cape Town - The Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob) is appealing to Capetonians to help raise funds to expand its Chick Rearing Unit (CRU) where they artificially incubate and hatch endangered African penguin eggs, then hand-rear them for release to bolster the declining population.
The CRU is no longer suitable to accommodate the high volume of African penguin eggs rescued.
The organisation said it was proud of its current release rate of hand-reared African penguin chicks, of 81%, but it was becoming harder to achieve due to the ageing infrastructure and lack of space.
Over the past seven years Sanccob has seen an increase in the volume and frequency of African penguin eggs and chick admissions as a result of multiple factors that include food scarcity, sardines and anchovies being the main prey, and climate change revealed through extreme weather events.
Sanccob resource development manager Ronnis Daniels said: “The African penguin species face many threats and lack of food is currently a major concern, evident from the emaciated penguins rescued for admission and the effect that low food availability has on their breeding patterns.”
Sanccob, in partnership with managing authorities of the penguin colonies, thus carries out proactive measures to intervene to rescue abandoned eggs before they are no longer viable, and chicks that will potentially perish from starvation.
Without the intervention of Sanccob and penguin colony managing authorities, Daniels said the African penguin eggs and chicks would not hatch or survive at a time when it was crucial to do everything possible to reverse their decline in numbers.
Sanccob’s Chick Bolstering Project commenced in 2006 as a collaborative project between Sanccob, conservation authorities, and the government to arrest and reverse the decline of the African penguin population. This was done by working with the City, CapeNature, SANParks and Robben Island Museum.
CapeNature CEO Razeena Omar said: “The rate of decline of this species is alarming but our conservation efforts may ensure the survival of these birds. The most recent census reveals that the Stony Point penguin colony holds an estimated 1 565 of the 10 000 breeding pairs of African penguins found countrywide.”
Daniels said: “The collective giving power of the Cape Town community is what will make this project a reality to enable Sanccob to improve and increase the capacity of our Chick Rearing Unit.”
A whopping R4 million was needed for the exemption but Daniels said that when broken down, it equates to a palatable R200 from 20 000 donors.
kristin.engel@inl.co.za