African penguin chicks Victory and Venus with uShaka Sea World Animal Behaviourist Kelly de Klerk. Picture: Supplied
After the Department of Fisheries, Forestry, and Environment (DFFE), together with conservation organisations and research institutions, noted an eight percent decline in the population of African penguins, there have been efforts within South Africa’s marine biology community to keep the species going.
Last month, the team at the South African Association for Marine Biological Research, or Saambr, at the Ushaka Sea World (USW) in Durban helped birth two more African penguins into the world, giving hope to a dying species.
Victory, who is almost seven weeks old, was born on July 8 to her parents, Snoop Dogg (dad) and Levi (mom).
Saambr’s Ann Kunz said the team initially thought she was a boy but has since found out that the penguin is a girl.
Victory's parents, Snoop Dogg and Levi, are both seasoned caregivers and have raised chicks before.
"Victory eats around 16 sardines per day and weighs around 2.5kg," Kunz said.
Victory is the second generation African penguin to be born at Ushaka Sea World, as Snoop Dogg and Levi were both born in the Ushaka penguin colony in 2008 and 2010, respectively.
Six-week-old Venus, whose sex is yet to be determined by the Saambr team, was born on July 15 and weighs 1.76kg.
Venus’ parents are Calso (dad) and Aladin (mom). Calso was found stranded on a beach in KwaZulu-Natal and taken to USW in 2017. Aladin was found stranded on a beach in 2006.
"We have not done blood tests yet to determine her (Venus) sex, but we think she is also a little girl," Kunz explained.
Despite weighing under 2 kg’s, Venus eats up to 12 sardines per day.
"These two young penguins will form part of an assurance population which is an important part of a functional species survival plan for endangered species," Kunz said.
Besides breeding African penguin colonies, the DFFE was also given a report in July by a group of scientists which recommended that fishing around islands that were breeding colonies should be stopped.
"Research at Dassen and Robben islands demonstrated that closing fishing around these breeding colonies is likely to reduce the rate of decline in the population to some extent, while various other contributing factors need to be taken into consideration too," Saambr said.
The African penguin has also been identified globally as a penguin in need of urgent intervention by the IUCN Penguin Specialist Group.
According to Save The African Penguin, there are only 14,700 pairs left in the world.
"Ten thousand and four hundred pairs in South Africa (based on 2021 breeding census) and 4,300 pairs in Namibia (based on 2019 breeding census)," Save The African Penguin wrote.
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