Penguin Parenting: Lessons in Love and Shared Survival

Humans can learn a lot from penguins. Not only are these remarkable birds incredibly resilient, but they also endure some of the harshest climates on the planet. What’s most inspiring, however, is how they care for their young. Penguin parenting is all about teamwork. While the female lays the eggs, both the male and female share the responsibilities that follow—from incubation to chick rearing and feeding.

Like human parenting, raising a baby penguin requires constant attention and effort from both parents. In human families, it’s rare that the mother goes out and leaves the father alone to care for a new born for extended periods. However, in the penguin world, it’s quite the norm. Since the female’s foraging skills aren’t as proficient as her male counterpart’s, she often takes longer when out at sea looking for food to bring back to her chicks. She may even spend several hours resting on the shore before or after a foraging trip. Fortunately with penguins no-one is watching the clock.

Despite their shared commitment to caring for their young, penguin parents sometimes have to abandon their nests. This usually happens if they’ve bred too late in the season and must focus on replenishing their energy stores for the upcoming moulting season. More worryingly, they may also be forced to leave due to the increasing distance they must travel to find food. Marine scientists at the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) believe that food shortages are causing penguins to travel even further, leaving the other parent to abandon the nest as well. With both parents gone, eggs and chicks are left vulnerable to predators, bad weather, and starvation.

South Africa is home to the African penguin, a species found only on the southwestern coast of Africa. They live in colonies on 24 islands (and a few mainland sites) between Namibia and Algoa Bay, near Gqberha. Cape Town’s Boulders Beach is the most famous colony, attracting thousands of tourists daily. Sadly, since the industrial era, the African penguin population has declined by 97%, with scientists predicting extinction by 2035 if nothing is done to protect their food sources—anchovies and sardines.

With just 8,300 breeding pairs left in South Africa, their population is decreasing at an alarming rate of 7.9% per year. SANCCOB is the only organization in the world that artificially incubates and hatches wild-origin African penguin eggs and hand-rears the chicks for release back into the wild, aiming to bolster the declining wild population. On average, SANCCOB receives 500 to 600 abandoned African penguin chicks and 300 to 400 eggs annually, with these numbers increasing by 256% in the last seven years.

Researchers at SANCCOB, have been studying the correlation between environmental conditions and higher female mortality rates. Recent studies suggest that there may be more surviving male penguins than females, directly linking this decline to the scarcity of food and the females’ ability to forage. The smaller body size of a female leads to slightly shallower diving behaviour and possibly slower swimming speed, resulting in lower foraging success.

“To ensure the survival of the African penguin, food sources need to become plentiful again and within easy reach, especially since it’s impossible to breed without female penguins. Adequate food supplies would allow the birds to raise their chicks to fledging age while giving them enough time to fatten up for their annual moult towards the end of the year,” suggests Nicky Stander, Head of Conservation at SANCCOB.  

In a further effort to halt their decline towards extinction, BirdLife South Africa and SANCCOB took legal action in March this year against the Office of the Minister of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment, pushing for the implementation of no-catch zones for sardine and anchovy around six breeding sites so that the penguins do not have to compete with commercial purse-seine fishing vessels who are fishing in their hunting grounds. The court date has been set for October 22-24, 2024.

For the African penguin and all other birdlife and marine species, sharing the ocean’s bounty has always been natural. If only humans could learn the greatest lesson of all: to share as they do. We must recognize that our actions impact not just our own survival but the delicate balance of all life on this planet. By shedding our selfishness and remembering that we are not the sole inhabitants of this Earth, we can begin to live in harmony with the countless species with whom we share this world, ensuring a future where all can thrive.

To find out more about SANCCOB, and or to make a donation or apply to volunteer please visit www.sanccob.co.za or contact Melissa Knott at melissa@sanccob.co.za.

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