African penguins latest victims of rough and stormy weather
Guy Rogers ENVIRONMENT & TOURISM EDITOR
http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/news/n18_05092008.htm
THE HERALD ONLINE
PORT ELIZABETH Monday September 8, 2008THE latest victims of this week‘s enormous seas, eight African penguins with broken feet, were rescued yesterday from Bird Island.
Addo Elephant National Park section ranger Guy Padayachee, whose jurisdiction includes Bird Island, said the birds had probably been trying to scramble out the water when they were smashed into the rocks by the nine-metre waves.
“The swell was the highest yet recorded at Bird Island. It swamped our new jetty, smashing and washing away gabions and causing about R3-million worth of damage. It destroyed an old building we were going to turn into a boathouse. We found the carcasses of 14 penguins under the rubble.”
The huge waves also threw up rocks from the seabed. This debris has covered a wide apron of vegetation around the island – a vital habitat for the penguins.
The penguins burrow into this vegetation to nest and to shelter from the elements.
“We had avoided creating burrows for them because we didn‘t want to disturb the vegetation, but now that the environment has been changed anyway we will be looking to use the rocks to create nests and shelters.”
Padayachee said he would also be linking up with the team managing Dyer Island, in the Western Cape, hopefully to obtain some of the prefabricated huts that have been made for penguins.
The waves pushed about 15m onto Bird Island, swamping a number of nests. Some penguin chicks were probably lost, but it was not yet clear how many, he said.
Ajubatus operations manager Trudi Malan, whose organisation runs a rehabilitation centre at Cape St Francis, said the losses and habitat damage would have been less critical were it not for the crisis facing the African penguin as a species.
“As it is, it‘s serious and we‘re going to have to do something to help them with burrows.”
Until recently Algoa Bay was the stronghold of the African penguin. Fifteen years ago there were about 70000 birds, half the global population.
However, the numbers began to drop alarmingly about seven years ago, with suspected reasons ranging from over- fishing to climate change and the migration of the sardine it preys on. There are currently 2675 breeding pairs of penguins on Bird Island.
The eight injured penguins from Bird Island were taken to Bayworld where they were tube-fed, ready for the trip down to the Ajubatus centre.
Blood samples were taken by avian parasite expert Albert Schultz who is trying to establish what parasites, if any, are present on Bird Island.
The big seas around Bird Island have left adjacent Stag and Seal islands and Black Rocks, home to a bustling colony of 400 seals, submerged.
Luckily seal pupping would only begin in November.
The famous Bird Island Cape gannetry, numbering 80000 pairs, the largest in the world, also narrowly escaped damage, with the swell pushing to the edge of it, Padayachee said.
No comments:
Post a Comment