African Penguin

Quick Take

• Being the first penguin species to meet humans sounds like an advantage. It wasn't. First contact with humans →
• African penguins live in Africa, yet they have a built-in heat management system you'd never expect on a penguin. See the pink heat glands →
• Africa was actually one of the last places on Earth penguins reached, and ocean physics explains why. Trace their African arrival →
• The African penguin population has been collapsing for over a century, and the math behind its decline is alarming. See the population decline →

It is widely believed that African Penguins were one of the first Penguin species to come into contact with humans, because they are found on the temperate South African coast rather than in the heart of Antarctica. This, however, does not seem to have worked to their advantage, as their eggs were stolen for food (slowing the rate of reproduction), and the guano used in nest building was harvested for fertilizer.

Today, other threats face the African Penguin, including competition for food from commercial fishing and oil pollution in the water. Only a small handful of nesting sites can be accessed by tourists, but the penguin’s nervousness around people means that these areas have to be strictly monitored.

Evolution

The third attempt was the charm for African penguins, as the species made repeated attempts to settle the South African coasts. The first group went extinct millions of years ago — then another group made the trip. Those first penguin settlers came to Africa 30 million years after they had first spread to Australia, Antarctica, and South America. The fossil remains of four extinct species other than the black-footed African penguin have been found and dated.

Two of the extinct species, Inguza and Nucleornis, arrived in Africa after the current ocean system was in place — 20 million years ago. The fact that ocean currents didn’t flow toward the continent before being reorganized explains why penguins were late to arrive in Africa and never arrived in Madagascar. The oldest fossils of the black-footed African penguin are between 250,000 and 400,000 years old.

Classification

The African Penguin is a small to medium-sized penguin species that is found along the coast of South Africa and on a number of its surrounding islands. The African Penguin is thought to be most closely related to the Humboldt and Magellanic Penguins found in southern South America, and the Galapagos Penguin found in the Pacific Ocean near the Equator. The African Penguin was named for the fact that it is the only species of Penguin that is found breeding on the African Coast, and it is believed to be one of the first Penguin species to be discovered by humans.

Anatomy and Appearance

The African Penguin is a fairly distinctive species of penguin with clean black and white markings and a sharply pointed black beak. The African Penguin also has black feet and a number of dot-like markings flecked across its white chest, which are said to be as unique to the individual penguin as a human fingerprint is, along with a narrow black band. The male African Penguin is generally slightly larger than its female counterparts, but both are fairly similar in appearance. One of the African Penguin’s most distinctive features is its pink glands above the eyes, which help it cope with warm climates. The hotter the African Penguin gets, the more blood is sent to these glands so they can be cooled by the surrounding air, which in turn makes these glands pinker.

Distribution and Habitat

The African Penguin is found on the southwestern coast of Africa, living in 27 colonies on 24 islands between Namibia and Algoa Bay, near Port Elizabeth, South Africa, with the largest colony found on Dyer Island, near Kleinbaai. African Penguins are most densely distributed around the cold, nutrient-rich waters of the Benguela Current, where there is a plentiful supply of food. Although they spend much of their time at sea, African Penguins gather in nesting sites on rocky islands where they spend their days in sheltered burrows to avoid the hot sun. They are one of the only Penguin species to be found in non-freezing conditions and cope with this by burrowing, emerging at dusk and dawn, and using the pink glands above their eyes to cool the blood down.

Behavior and Lifestyle

Like many other Penguin species, African Penguins are incredibly sociable birds, with adults forming pair bonds that can last for life, with some pairs remaining together for decades. African Penguins can often be seen grooming one another, which is not only practical for cleaning purposes, but also for removing parasites and even just rearranging feathers, constantly strengthening the social bond between the pair. Their courtship displays are often very noisy, as the male and female penguins call to each other using a series of donkey-like sounds. African Penguins are also known to bathe just a few meters from the shore, which they are thought to do quite regularly to both clean and cool themselves down in the heat.

Reproduction and Life Cycles

African Penguins begin to breed at the average age of four when a male and female will pair up and tend to breed together for the rest of their lives. The female African Penguin either digs herself a burrow or finds a dip beneath a rock or bush, in which she lays two eggs. The eggs are incubated by both parents for up to 40 days, after which only one of the eggs will usually hatch. The African Penguin chicks are fed and kept warm by their parents constantly until they are a month old, when they begin to be left on their own, forming crèches with other chicks for protection from predators. They tend to remain with their parents until they are between 3 and 5 months old, when they will leave the colony, depending on the supply and quality of food in the area. The chicks return to the colony after a couple of years to molt into their adult plumage. African Penguins generally live for between 10 and 15 years.

Diet and Prey

The African Penguin is a carnivore with a diet of fish including Anchovies, Sardines, Horse Mackerel, and Round Herrings. Fish make up the bulk of the African Penguin’s diet, supplemented by the occasional squid or crustacean when their usual prey is in short supply. The streamlined body of the African Penguin allows it to move through the water like a rocket, capable of reaching a top speed of around 15 mph (24 km/h) while hunting for food.

African Penguins catch their prey by diving into the ocean depths for around 2.5 minutes at a time. Although they normally go to depths of around 98.4 feet (30 meters), it is not uncommon for them to be found hunting more than 328 feet (100 meters) beneath the water’s surface.

Predators and Threats

The African Penguin’s smaller size means that it has many predators both in the water and on dry land. Their marine predators are primarily Sharks and Cape Fur Seals, but the biggest threat to them on land is not just to the adult Penguins, but more to the vulnerable eggs and chicks. Kelp Gulls and Sacred Ibises prey on them from the air, and Mongooses, Snakes, and Leopards have been observed hunting them on the ground. The African Penguin has also been severely affected by Human activity in their native regions, with populations thought to have suffered a drastic decline, mainly due to the exploitation of their eggs for food when the species was first discovered. They are also severely impacted by the disruption of their natural habitats.

Interesting Facts and Features

Penguins have more feathers than any other bird, which act as a waterproof layer keeping their skin dry. African Penguins molt once a year, which they do back in their colonies. The whole process lasts about 20 days, during which time African Penguins cannot swim or eat and can lose almost half their body weight. African Penguins are known to spend long periods of time fishing at sea and, depending on the area, can travel between 18.6 and 68.4 miles (30 and 110 km) in a single trip. However, African Penguins with chicks to feed will rarely go that far, catching food closer to shore as quickly as possible.

Conservation Status and Life Today

Today, the African Penguin is considered to be a vulnerable animal and has been listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN. It is thought that today’s African Penguin population of approximately 19,800 mature individuals is less than 10% of the population that existed in 1900. By the 1950s, the African Penguin population had halved, and it had then halved again by 1980. There is an approximate 2% decline in the African Penguin population every year, mainly due to the human consumption of their eggs, competition for food, and habitat disruption.