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‘Fiberglass igloos, reclassification’ to protect African penguins from extinction

The African penguins

The African penguins that waddle and swim the coasts of Namibia and South Africa seem to be gay and their count of 18,000 exposes their comfortable thriving. But, things are just the opposite, and you would surely realize that by the number they were in the herd — at least 1.5 million – a century ago.

Yes, since 2001, the adult penguins’ number in the two largest colonies — Robben Island and Dassen Island — has plummeted to fewer than 18,000! This is alarmingly, almost 60 percent less than what was their count just a century back.

Population movements in the past is no newer a phenomena, but, the present one seems particularly extreme! — Alarmed by the discovery, Underhill, a statistics expert at the University of Cape Town and vice president of the International Ornithological Committee said.

But, the question arises on what is leading the penguins into this real trouble presently. The reasons are no single one, but the culprit behind is the sole human.

With the first Europeans wiping out the Robben Island penguin population in an orgy of egg-stealing; and later, settlers’ scooping countless tons of penguin guano from islands for fertilizer use, and eventually destroying the soft soil, where the birds dug their subterranean nests has led to the drastic decrease in their numbers.

Keeping aside the European house cats, which feasted on thousands of penguin chicks, what cost the penguins the most are the modern South Africans’ dumping of oil in the ocean.

This killed thousands more of the already plummeting penguins. And ofcourse, the present culprit, of course human-imbibed, may be — climate change.

Many scientists believe that the sardine movements were linked to the Benguela current changes. It is a vast, frigid flow of nutrient-rich ocean water from Antarctica up the southwest Africa coast, some of which changes are cyclical, though others are related to global warming.

Experts, to save the now classified as a “vulnerable” bird species – Sphensicus – would decide on its consideration as an ‘endangered’ species.

To do their part, the bird’s supporters are digging holes on Robben and other islands to plant fiberglass “igloos” which the penguins can turn into homes. And, once covered in soil, the igloos will give the birds a cool nesting place and protect their chicks from the penguins’ nemesis.

 

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