Welcome back to our channel, and part two of our visit with the endangered African penguins
at Boulders Beach, Cape Town, South Africa.
In part one we spent time at the protected beach area where the main colony is found.
In this episode we take a short walk to a nearby public beach area where these penguins
enjoy the seaside alongside human beachgoers.
These plastic domes seen here are a conservation intervention to replace lost habitat.
As mentioned in part one, African penguins will nest on sandy beaches or dig burrows
on the beach or in the vegetation.
Despite having their own private beach, they roam freely and will nest away from the protected
area.
This is not ideal as they can become victims to domestic or feral cats and dogs from the
surrounding residential area.
In an effort to supplement the little remaining habitat, conservation organisations and colony
managers have tried to develop an artificial nest that African penguins could use.
Unfortunately these attempts have seen limited success.
In many cases the penguins chose not to use the nesting structures.
Guano is an excrement produced specifically from bats and sea birds.
It is high in nitrogen, and so commonly used as a fertilizer, but did you know that it
was even used to manufacture gunpowder?
It was highly sought after during the 19th century before the use of synthetic fertilizers.
While using penguin poo is highly resourceful, the collection of guano can be devastating
for the penguins.
In some locations this has led to penguins nesting on the surface, exposing their eggs
and chicks to additional risks that weren't as significant in the burrow nests.
This leads to a higher rate of nest abandonment when the climate is unsuitable for the adults
to continue their nesting attempt.
This young penguin is in the process of malting.
It is changing from the fluffy brown down to a stage known as baby blues, a name given
due to the blue undertone of the new feathers.
They're also known as blueys, you can see that it has no white face markings and no
bold delineated markings.
This penguin's feathers are still not waterproof so it is still wholly reliant on its parents
for food.
Feeding by the parents is done by direct beak to beak regurgitation.
A chick nearing fledgling can consume up to 500 grams of food per day.
By the time they reach the baby blue stage, they are large enough to survive alone or
at least near the nest site.
Here we have a bluey in the company of an adult exiting the water.
Blueys do not have the same colour pattern as the adults, nor do they target the same
food source.
They feed more exclusively on fish larvae, which is slower moving than the bait fish
and it is found closer to the water surface.
Their dull coloration may make it easier to creep up on their prey and also make them
less visible to predators like orcas, sharks, and seals.
If food has been plentiful the bluey may be ready for sea at about two months.
If it has been scarce it can take up to four months to be strong enough for a taste of
the wild and potentially dangerous ocean.
The weight of chicks can vary considerably at fledgling.
Some of the heavier specimens can weigh up to four kilograms.
For the first few years of their life they are extremely mobile travelling great distances.
An interesting fact is that one individual, ringed with a flipper band in Algoa bay on
the east coast of South Africa, was recovered at Ichaboe Island in Namibia on the west coast
of southern Africa.
That is a swim of 1300 kilometers.
Blueys will keep their juvenile plumage for up to a year, after which they need to return
to land to malt.
This malting process takes three weeks and during this time they cannot feed until it
is completed as they are not waterproof.
They will lose up to 40 percent of their body weight.
Once malting is completed they will look just like the adults.
The public section of boulder's beach is quite small, nestled in between granite rocks that
are 540 million years old.
Way down there, in amongst the bathers are a couple of African penguins.
Let's head down there and see what we can see!
As we approach the beach there is a gate system to prevent the penguins from crossing the
parking area.
Notice the sign.
Penguins don't actually bite as they have no teeth.
Their beaks are razor sharp, designed for fishing, but they will peck at you if they
feel threatened.
But i guess there isn't enough space to put all of that in a sign...
It is easy to see why the bathers and penguins enjoy this beach.
The mass of boulders, which is how the beach got its name, protect the beach from the prevailing
southeast wind.
The beach is affected by tide movement and is quite a bit smaller during high tide.
Male and female penguins have the same black and white plumage, so it's difficult to know
the gender at first glance.
These penguins are sunning themselves on the rocks, totally unperturbed by the surrounding
bathers.
Seeing penguins in Africa is one thing, but experiencing wildlife this close is quite
surreal.
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