Artificial nests can increase breeding rates of endangered African penguins, a Nelson Mandela University-led study has found.
The international team of researchers from South Africa and the UK found that artificial nests outperformed natural nests and increased breeding output by 16.5%.
Did you know that these artificial penguin nests, was invented right here in Gansbaai by CEO of Marine Dynamics and the Founder of the Dyer Island Conservation Trust, Wilfred Chivell?
Wilfred noticed that the African Penguins on Dyer Island, have no shelter- or protected area to lay their eggs and raise their chicks, protected from possible predation, rain and heat. Years ago, the penguins would have burrowed into the layers of guano, and built their nest in this protective layer, but guano was harvested for fertilizer and nothing has remained on any of the African Penguin colonies.
So Wilfred started putting out pipes, and building make-shift shelters 23 years ago on Dyer Island and immediately noticed how the penguin parents raced to get to a “shelter”. This led to Wilfred engaging with various scientists to develop the perfect penguin penthouse, the way the look today!
Trudi Malan, the South African Nest Project manager at the Dyer Island Conservation Trust and the African Penguin and Seabird Sanctuary, has been running the nest project successfully for the past two decades.
This effort to save African penguins by giving them homes to protect their eggs and raise their young, which started in Gansbaai, is now truly a global collaboration. Team members from around the world have helped study, design, and install the artificial nests, as well as raising money to pay for it all.
The nests are built at the African Penguin and Seabird Sanctuary and delivered to all other African Penguin colonies in South Africa as well as Namibia!
The sad news you would have read is that the African Penguin has now been classified as “critically endangered” by the IUCN. Wilfred worked tirelessly alongside Professor Les Underhill, in getting the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to classify the African Penguin as an “Endangered” species in May 2005.
We are grateful for Wilfred vision to recreate a perfect nest setting, and also for noticing the massive threat the predation of seals and kelp gulls has on the survival of the African Penguin.
You can view, and buy one of the penguin penthouses and help protect our African Penguins, by visiting: https://dict.org.za/donate/
Or, join us on a shark- or whale tour in Kleinbaai, Gansbaai, and see these penguin houses for yourself, from our Marine Dynamics vessels, when we pass Dyer Island, book at: www.marinedynamics.co.za
