MORE THAN 150 AFRICAN PENGUIN CHICKS RESCUED FROM DYER ISLAND
December 08, 2010 by dyertrust
An emergency operation to rescue 156 African Penguin chicks from Dyer Island, South Africa, has been successfully co-coordinated byCapeNaturewith the support of theDyer Island Conservation Trustand theSouth African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds(SANCCOB).
The chicks faced starvation as they had been born late in the breeding season. Now their parents have begun to moult and are therefore to go to sea to fish preventing them from feeding their young which are often abandoned to die.
Removed by the CapeNature team the chicks were rapidly taken ashore by the Dyer Island Conservation Trust’s research boat, Lwazi (Knowledge), before being transported to SANCCOB’S rescue centre in Cape Town where they will be fed and cared for about three months. The chicks will then be released back into the breeding colony at Dyer Island.
The African Penguin was recently declared anENDANGERED SPECIESby theInternational Union of Conservation of Nature.Dyer Island is one of the most important breeding colonies of the African Penguin but it now has fewer than 1200 breeding pairs following a 55% decline in the population.
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