Penguin Events to Celebrate African Penguin Day

Penguin Events to Celebrate African Penguin Day at Living Coasts Aquarium
Tue, 9/22/2009 - 8:31 PM

By Philip Knowling

Torquay, UK - Saturday 26th September is African Penguin Day at Living Coasts.

The day aims to raise awareness for Living Coasts’ penguin conservation work and for its support for the South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB).

Activities include helping to clean up oiled penguins. Events Coordinator Kate Hall said: “Visitors will be able to help out in the Penguin Hospital, cleaning penguins that have been caught in an oil spill the way staff at SANCCOB would in real life.”

The penguin hospital will be running from 11:00am to 12:00 and 2:00pm to 3:00pm

The penguins in this case are inflatable models.

Torquay’s coastal zoo is holding all manner of other penguin-themed fun and games through the day, including a penguin quiz and a “waddle-off” catwalk competition for the best penguin impression. There will be penguin-related craft activities including making flapping penguins, creating penguins out of recycled bottles and penguin painting.

Living Coasts Director Elaine Hayes said: “SANCCOB care for sick and injured sea birds and are involved in coastal conservation projects. It makes perfect sense for us to support their vital work.”

Living Coasts donates sums raised by on-site activities to the bird charity. The Zoo is also part of the European Stud Book for African penguins, which means that all breeding is coordinated with collections across Europe..

African penguin colonies are declining at an alarming rate, mainly due to a lack of food caused by over-fishing and by the movement of fish stocks away from the colonies - the latter quite possibly as a result of global climate change.

Living Coasts also contributes 1,000 Euros a year to Project Penguin. Project Penguin is a conservation and research programme set up by Bristol Zoo Gardens in collaboration with SANCCOB, the University of Cape Town’s Animal Demography Unit, the South African government, Cape Nature and other local and international partners.

It aims to find a way to artificially establish new penguin colonies in places closer to the fish stocks, and thus more suitable for the penguins’ long-term survival.

For more information go to www.livingcoasts.org.uk or ring (01803) 202470.

To view Living Coasts Aquarium's web page on Zoo and Aquarium Visitor, go to: http://www.zandavisitor.com/forumtopicdetail-786-Living_Coasts

Source:
http://www.zandavisitor.com/newsarticle-2215-Penguin_Events_to_Celebrate_African_Penguin_Day_at_Living_Coasts_Aquarium