Let's help the Cape Penguins!

A multi-year commitment

The SANCCOB association, a project of the Le PAL Nature Foundation, has the mission of conserving and protecting the seabirds of the South African coasts. It has two centers:

• One in Cape Town specializing in the breeding, care and release of animals. It is located 2 hours drive from the Boulder and Stony Pount settlements.
• The other in Gqeberha, which focuses on education and training.

Collaborate with local authorities for more protection

Stiller Stone Nature Reserve, home to a colony of Cape penguins, is a protected sanctuary for penguins sensitive to the sun and high heat. The rangers of the association and the members of the national park have installed nesting boxes for the Cape Penguins to take shelter in. Moreover, all the nesting boxes are monitored 24 hours a day in order to guarantee births. Explanatory signs have been installed along the path of the reserve to make the public aware of the cause.

What about the species today?

Unfortunately, the African Penguin population has declined by more than 80% over the past ten years, from 78,025 breeding pairs to just 14,341 currently.
The reasons for this decrease are multiple:

• The nature reserve of Betty's Bay, once a place of passage for whalers, regularly suffers significant environmental damage forcing the colony of penguins to move. Although these businesses have been closed, central Cape Town still hosts many oiled and oiled birds.
• Global warming, which creates a shift in moulting in Cape Penguins
• The lack of fish available in nature
• Finally, the avian flu, which is currently raging, is causing considerable losses. In an attempt to protect itself from this scourge, the SANCCOB center has been quarantined.

A glimmer of hope for the future

Faced with this alarming situation, SANCCOB has launched an appeal to zoological parks to support them in the conservation of the Cape penguin species which could disappear from its natural environment in less than ten years! A new collaboration between Le PAL and SANCCOB could see the light of day in the years to come to try to ensure the survival of the species.