African Penguin May be Functionally Extinct in the Wild in as Soon as 3 Years?

Today, I randomly stumbled on this article, which explained that the African Penguin may be extinct in the wild in as soon as 3 years. This is admittedly the low end of the estimated time range for when they will go extinct, but the fact was still really shocking to me. I had no clue that the species was THAT endangered. The species is really common in US zoos (I don’t know about other countries), but I had always assumed they were common because they looked cute (like meerkats), and that they didn’t have that much conservation value. But this article proved me wrong.

I was curious about other people’s thoughts on this issue. Are other people as surprised as I am? What conservation work can be done to protect this species? What are the prospects of captive breeding / reintroduction efforts? I assume the species is easy to breed in captivity-- otherwise they would not be this common in zoos. But I also think that reintroduction efforts would not be worth it until the underlying issues causing their endangerment are resolved. Otherwise, a reintroduced population would die out just as the current wild population is.

 

That’s quite alarming to hear!!! Fortunately there is a large population in captivity as you already mentioned. Not quite sure what will be done if that happen, but I will assume that zoos will end up starting some sort of very large program to reintroduce, and pressure will probably be put on the South African government.

 

This is upsetting and shocking... Despite knowing that they are Endangered, this is sooner than I would have expected...

 

It's not surprising to me, sadly. In addition to the 90% species decline since 1900, there was a 23% decline just from 2019-2021. The functionally extinct estimate in 2018 was for 2035 if nothing was done.

This decimation has been caused by a number of human-related things. They only live in a few areas now, right on major shipping routes, meaning oil spills. The Suez canal briefly being blocked last year, causing ships to go around Africa, likely caused an increase in deaths, for example. Ships tend to get fueled at sea - there's floating "gas stations", basically - which increases the chances of spills and brings them closer to the penguin populations. Spills and the massive amounts of commercial fishing are decimating the populations of what the penguins eat, additionally; this is probably the biggest cause of death for the species. Many are starving to death.

Diseases like avian flu have been a problem, too. They don't kill a lot of birds, but at this point anything causing multiple deaths is a concern.

African penguins live in large colonies, so the big decrease in colony size means more predation by other species, it's harder for them to find food because there's less birds going out in search of it, etc.

A lot is being done to try and save them! SANCCOB (SANCCOB | S A Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds – SANCCOB saves African penguins and other threatened seabirds) is leading the way. With the help of Maryland Zoo, they've created artificial nests, which saves penguins the energy it takes to build them and gives them homes. African penguins make their nests out of guano, which humans have been harvesting for use as fertilizer. That, on top of there being a lot less penguins to generate the poop needed for nest making, resulted in a decrease in eggs being laid. These artificial nests were tested over and over to find a design that the penguins like best for nesting.

SANCCOB has several locations set up in South Africa for rescuing penguins from spills and other things. They have tons of stations within the permanent locations, and can take over warehouses if need be for major spills. It's not a matter of just cleaning the birds, either. Getting the oil off means the birds are no longer waterproof, so the birds have to be kept until their proper feathers come back, then get them adjusted to water again. This can take months per bird! They have trained "penguin rangers" who continually monitor colonies and elsewhere for any injured or oil covered birds (small spills often don't get reported), which are then brought in.

Much of the destruction has been to the South African populations, meaning the group in Namibia now makes up about 1/3 the total population. Until recently, there was nothing whatsoever being done to protect these birds! Jess Phillips, who is in charge of the colony at Maryland, teamed up with SANCCOB to find a suitable location site and set up an organization there. The site has multiple buildings, allowing for a few people to live there full time, along with housing visitors, providing veterinary care, etc. This means all colonies are now being monitored and cared for.

Jess has spent a lot of time over there, training people and helping set up things (plus helping save birds, of course). He's been training AZA people and putting together lists of those who can go over and help when the next major disaster occurs. Many of the keepers at Maryland have visited South Africa to help with the hands-on work. Even the zoo's general curator, Mike McClure, has gone over and worked on things like putting tracking tags on birds. Jess has also spent a heck of a time organizing fundraising, getting grants, and doing other things to raise money for SANCCOB.

I highly recommend visiting Maryland Zoo if you're interested in the conservation of these birds. Their exhibit is fantastic and there's plenty of signage about them, along with a few fairly cheap hands-on things you can do, like tossing them fish.

I probably should have looked up some links before typing all of that up instead of after, haha, but here's some anyway:

AZA feature article from last month - Waddle We Do Without Penguins?
Maryland Zoo blog post - To Save a Species | The Maryland Zoo
African Penguin SAFE (Saving Animals From Extinction) website - https://www.africanpenguinsafe.org/
SANCCOB overview about the species and what they're doing - Save The African Penguin – SANCCOB | S A Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds
Website for the nest project, where you can sponsor one for $50 - https://www.savingpenguins.org/

(Sorry for any typos or anything on this, I don't usually do long posts!)

 

Not surprising, and indeed the African penguin is one of the five most threatened penguin species. So it is an appropriate species for zoos to manage in their collections. As for conservation the articles suggest it is now about preserving fish stocks. There is no need currently for reintroduction and in effect more birds at this point would create competition for the already diminished food recourse. It sounds like from what @TinoPup has posted that some AZA zoos are already doing a fair bit.

The only quibble I have with the article is the use of the term "functionally extinct", which I think is increasingly misused. To my mind to be functionally extinct a species has living individuals but no prospects of recruitment. The scientific article referred to puts a figure of 50 pairs as the point where the species becomes "functionally extinct". No doubt it would be in very serious trouble at that point but "functional extinction" sounds like an excuse to give up. Then again I am no penguin expert so maybe there is some critical mass required.

 

I actually had no idea African Penguins were that endangered!

 

They live in large groupings, ideally tens of thousands of birds, so getting down to that sort of number sounds appropriate for the species. It seems like a lot of animals to still use any form of the word "extinct", but a small amount of pairs can't function. They can't build safe nests, keep them safe from predators, fish together, etc.

I haven't heard about any plans for reintroduction. There's too many problems that they need to make a dent in fixing first. They would need hundreds of birds to reintroduce to have a shot at survival. Zoos will keep the species from becoming extinct, but functionally extinct remains to be seen.