Pamela Isdell Seabird Nursery gives African penguins a fighting chance
The Pamela Isdell Seabird Nursery in Table View can support up to 400 African penguin eggs in incubators and care for 200 orphaned chicks.
The SANCCOB Pamela Isdell Seabird Nursery in Table View. Pictures supplied by SANCCOB.
CAPE TOWN - A new seabird nursery in Cape Town is giving African penguins a fighting chance at survival.
The Pamela Isdell Seabird Nursery in Table View can support up to 400 African penguin eggs in incubators and care for 200 orphaned chicks.
The facility is part of a broader conservation push to save the critically endangered species.
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According to the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB), African penguins have lost 97% of their population, with fewer than 10,000 breeding pairs left in the wild.
SANCCOB’s head of conservation, Nicky Stander, said climate change and commercial fishing have put major pressure on food security for penguins.
“Each egg that is abandoned in the wild, the conservation authorities will rescue and transport to SANCCOB to be artificially incubated and hand reared, and if that weren't to happen, these eggs would simply die or the chicks would die in the nest without the support of their parents.”