More than 60,000 penguins starve to death in South Africa

More than 60,000 African penguins have died in just eight years due to collapsing sardine stocks. Researchers estimate that 95% of the African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) within the species’ two most crucial breeding colonies—Dassen Island and Robben Island—died between 2004 and 2012. The researchers also believe that the majority of the deaths occurred during the penguins’ annual molting process, a period of around three weeks where the birds replace their worn-out feathers with new ones. During this time, the birds must remain on land and can’t hunt, relying on fat reserves so they don’t starve. “If food is too hard to find before they molt or immediately afterwards, they will have insufficient reserves to survive the fast,” said Richard Sherley, a conservation biologist at the University of Exeter. The Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax) has also seen immense declines over the same period due to overfishing and climate change. Certain types of fishing have been banned near key breeding colonies and some conservationists on the ground are helping to improve fledging success by building artificial nests, managing for predators and hand-rearing rescued chicks. The species was listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in 2024.

Read more at The Guardian.