Festival raises awareness about plight of penguins

Friday 25 December 2015

Anda Nqonji

Nearly 300 endangered African Penguin chicks are hand-reared at the conservation centre after being abandoned by their parents.(SABC)

The Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB), a St Francis Bay-based organisation, is inviting citizens to learn more about the endangered penguin species.

This 10 day event is dedicated to educating South Africans and international visitors about the daily struggles of an African penguin.

SANCCOB is hosting its second penguin holiday festival, an initiative to raise awareness around the plight of the endangered African penguins and other seabirds.

This initiative, seeks to educate people about the African penguin in an entertaining way.
The Foundations’ Marketing and development coordinator, Louanne Mostert, says their main goal is to rescue and rehabilitate these species.


“This is a great opportunity to have our international England and East Coast visitors to learn more about African penguin, which is pretty much as we call it, the rhino of the ocean, which is the endangered penguin species that occurs only on our coast line, so raising awareness has been our main focus with this event.”

Holiday makers say while they are happy to see the penguins in action, they fear that the next generation might not be as privileged.
The younger generation was also interested in learning about these endangered species, but like their parents, they want nothing but safety for their sea friends.

Mostert says they will continue to raise awareness about the penguin species, as it is part of the African heritage.

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