African penguins are at risk of extinction

They’re cute, they’re knee-high, they bray like donkeys and they’re a tourist attraction near Cape Town, South Africa. But African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) — the continent’s only species of the flightless bird — are at risk of extinction. In the 1930s, South Africa’s largest colony — one of many — had a million African penguins. Now, only 100,000 of the birds remain in all of South Africa and neighboring Namibia, the only places where the species exists. Anchovies and sardines are the penguin’s primary food source. Both fisheries scientists and bird specialists agree that the decline of the penguin began around 2004 with a shift in anchovies and sardines away from the colonies. Penguins must now swim farther to catch fish, leaving adults weakened. Many have died or abandoned their chicks, with hundreds winding up in the crowded outdoor pens of a rehabilitation center run by the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds.

Source: Washington Post, August 31, 2015
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/cute-african-peng…