Endangered African Penguin - Essay Example

African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus) School The African Penguin (also known as Jackass Penguin) due to their unusual braying sound they produce, is found in Southern Africa especially the coastal area. They are basically found in Southwestern Africa along the cost between Namibia and Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Numerous islands off the cost of Southwestern Africa are native to this species and often these islands are known as Penguin islands (New England Aquarium, 2012). The penguin species are known to eat small fishes especially mackerel, sardines, anchovies and pilchard.

Besides they also consume marine invertebrates such as crustaceans and squids. Usually a penguin would consume about 500 grams of fish every day and during breeding they may even consume up to 1000 grams (New England Aquarium, 2012). As in the early part of the 20th century about 1.5 million penguin were estimated to inhabit the Southern African region and since then, they population have been on the downtrend and have now decreased to 5 to 10% of their original numbers. The main threats to their survival is that commercial fishing is beginning to threaten their diet and most often they have to seek food in deeper water or consume less nutritious food.

Besides, global warming have increased temperatures. There are other causes for their decline including human consumption being considered a delicacy in Africa, exposure to oil slicks (especially the MV Treasure which sank in June 2000), El Nino effects (which causes severe food shortages in their habitat areas) and presence of several natural predators (such as sharks, seals, mongoose, cats and seagulls) (Robert J. M. Crawford, 2006). The African penguin is at the risk of extinction and is listed as an endangered species in the Red Data Book and by the USA Endangered Species Act.

Today the number of African penguins are about 55000, from 200,000 in the year 2000. Their decline is very rapid and many of the Environmental protection and Governmental are working tirelessly to monitor the number of birds, creating artificial rearing centers, and protecting the habitat areas of the birds from human activities and some of the natural predators (Robert J. M. Crawford, 2006). The African Penguin is interesting mainly because it gives out a braying sound like a donkey, similar to many of its cousin species in South America.

They have have black and white stripes all over their body, and these stripes are unique to each individual penguin. Further, this black and white stripes are useful camouflage when the birds are swimming, as predators looking above cannot see the white stripes and predators looking downwards cannot see the black stripes (James Banfill, 2009). There are several captive breeding programs carried out especially including those organized by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds.

In the past 1000s of volunteers working for these organizations have rehabilitated about 90% of the penguins. They have also hand-reared several birds, setup artificial nets, and have taken care of abandoned birds (Mike Cadman, 2003). Works Cited: James Banfill. African Penguin. Biology 487 MESH Washington University. Winter 2009. http://mesh.biology.washington.edu/penguinProject/African Robert J. M. Crawford, Les G. Underhill, Leshia Upfold. An altered carrying capacity of the Benguela upwelling ecosystem for African penguins (Spheniscus demersus).

ICES Journal of Marine Science, 64: 570–576.http://web.uct.ac.za/depts/stats/adu/pdf/bclme32_altered%20carrying%20capacity.pdf New England Aquarium. African Penguin. 2011. NEAQ. 26 February 2012. Web. http://www.neaq.org/animals_and_exhibits/animals/african_penguin/index.php Mike Cadman. Wildcare: The story of Karen Trendler and her African Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre. 2010. Jacana Media.