60,000 Penguins Died on 2 Remote Islands – and Scientists Think They Now Know the Reason Why

NEED TO KNOW

• Over 60,000 on two islands off the coast of South Africa have died over the course of eight years

• A study by the University of Exeter and the South African Department of Forestry and Fisheries and the Environment has revealed the likely reason why

• African penguins were classified as “critically endangered” in 2024

More than 60,000 penguins living off the coast of South Africa have died, according to a new study.

On Thursday, Dec. 4, the University of Exeter revealed in a press release that the research — which was conducted by the university and the South African Department of Forestry and Fisheries and the Environment — found that over 95 percent of the Dassen Island and Robben Island penguin colonies had died from 2004 to 2012.

The islands are two of the most important breeding colonies of the African penguin.

Researchers said the penguins “likely starved to death” as a result of “collapsing food supplies.” Around 62,000 birds are estimated to have died between 2004 and 2011, which is when the sardine stock off the west coast of South Africa was “consistently below 25% of its peak abundance” and resulted in a “severe food shortage,” the study’s co-author Dr Richard Sherley said.

In 2024, African penguins were also classified as “critically endangered,” Sherley added.

The molting process, where penguins shed their worn-out feathers for new ones, also contributed to the increasing number of penguins dying.

This is because the birds have to stay on land while they temporarily lose the protection of their feathers, meaning they can’t hunt for around 21 days.

“They are evolved to build up fat and then to fast whilst their body metabolises those reserves, and the protein in their muscles, to get them through moult,” Sherley said.

He added, “They then need to be able to regain body condition rapidly afterwards. So, essentially, if food is too hard to find before they moult or immediately afterwards, they will have insufficient reserves to survive the fast.”

The entire species of African penguins has seen a global population decline of nearly 80 percent in the last three decades, according to Shirley.

He suggested that measures could be taken to “reduce the exploitation of sardine when its biomass is less than 25% of its maximum and allow more adults to survive to spawn.”

Conservation actions such as artificial nests, predator management and the rescue, rehabilitation and hand-rearing of adults and chicks have also been put in place, per the study.

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A ban has also been placed on commercial fishing with a large net around the six largest breeding colonies in South Africa.

“We hope that the recent conservation interventions put in place, together with reduced exploitation rates of sardine when its abundance is less than the 25% of maximum threshold, will begin to arrest the decline and that the species will show some signs of recovery,” Sherley concluded.

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