With their upright stance, distinctive black and white colouring and agility in the water, penguins are entertaining and enchanting to watch and – in warmer waters – to swim amongst. They are also vulnerable, with reductions in their food supply and egg harvesting (for food) proving a very real threat.
The African Penguin (formerly Jackass Penguin) is the only penguin that breeds in Africa. There were 1.5 million of these birds estimated to be living in 1910 but, by the end of the 20th century, numbers were reduced by 90%. African penguins can swim at around 7km per hour, and their diet consists mainly of pilchards, anchovy and squid. They mate for life, and the partners take it in turns to incubate the eggs and feed the young. They head out to sea in December to feed, returning in January to mate. Their main predators are sharks, orca, Cape fur seals, mongoose, genet, gulls and domestic cats and dogs.
The Galápagos Penguin, the world’s rarest species of penguin, is the only type to live on the equator. The smallest of the warm weather penguins, it is 40 to 45 cm tall and weighs just 2 to 2.5 kg. Galapagos penguins have a thin white band under their chin and a black, inverted horseshoe shape around their belly. They eat small fish such as mullet and sardines, and numbers were decimated some 20 years ago when severe weather conditions caused drastic food shortages. Because they live to close to the equator, the Galapagos penguins keep cool by staying in the cold water of the Cromwell Current during the day, sleeping and nesting on land at night when it is colder. When on land during the day, the penguins protect their feet from sunburn by holding their flippers over them.
