African Penguin

Appearance

The beak length of the African penguin varies, usually growing between 4.8–6.5 cm (1.9–2.6 in). Juveniles do not possess the bold, delineated markings of the adult, but instead have dark upperparts that vary from greyish-blue to brown. The pale underparts lack both spots and the band. The beak is more pointed than that of the Humboldt penguin.

Like all penguins, it is flightless, with a streamlined body and wings stiffened and flattened into flippers for a marine habitat.

African penguins grow to 60–70 cm (24–28 in) tall and weigh between 2.2–3.5 kg (4.9–7.7 lb).

Published measurements include mass about 103.

Range and habitat

The African penguin is found on the southern and southwestern coast of Africa, living in colonies on 27 islands between Namibia and Algoa Bay, near Port Elizabeth, South Africa. It is the only penguin species that breeds in Africa, and its presence gave name to the Penguin Islands. Two colonies were established by penguins in the 1980s on the mainland near Cape Town, namely Boulders Beach near Simon's Town and Stony Point in Betty's Bay.

The African penguin, also known as Cape penguin or South African penguin, is a penguin confined to southern African waters. Today, breeding is largely restricted to 24 islands from Namibia to Algoa Bay, South Africa, with the Boulders Beach colony being an exception to this rule.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Diet and breeding

African penguins forage in the open sea, where they feed on pelagic fish such as sardines (among them the blue pilchard), South African mullet, Cape horse mackerels, red-eye round herrings and anchovies (specifically the European anchovy and the Southern African anchovy) and marine invertebrates such as squids (Loligo reynaudi) and small crustaceans, primarily krills, shrimps and Pterygosquilla armata. A penguin may consume up to 540 grams (1.19 lb) of prey every day, but this may increase to over 1 kg (2.2 lb) when raising older chicks.

Due to the marked decline of sardines in the waters near its habitat, African penguins' diet has shifted towards anchovies to some extent, although available sardine biomass is still a notable determinant of penguin population development and breeding success. While a diet of anchovies appears to be generally sufficient for the penguins, it is not ideal due to anchovies' lower concentrations of fat and protein. The species' diet changes throughout the year. As in many seabirds, it is believed that the interaction of diet choice and breeding success helps the penguins maintain their population size.

In crisis

Of the 1.5 million African penguins estimated in 1910, only some 10% remained at the end of the 20th century. African penguin populations, that breed in Namibia and South Africa, have declined by 95% since pre-industrial times. The total population fell to approximately 150,000–180,000 in 2000.

In 2010, the total African penguin population was estimated at 55,000. At the rate of decline seen from 2000 to 2010, the African penguin was expected to be extinct in the wild by 2026.

CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.

African Penguin is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on African penguin, Wikidata item Q244813. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.