Gauteng gets more penguins! NZG marks African Penguin Awareness Day

Pretoria is landlocked, but don’t tell the penguins. The National Zoological Garden (NZG) is marking International African Penguin Awareness Day on Saturday, 10 October, with four new chicks, a fresh pair of eggs and a colony that’s clearly feeling broody, Joburg ETC reports.

The NZG’s 14-strong African penguin crew has welcomed four chicks as breeding kicks off again. One has already waddled out of its nest, swapping its fluffy down for blue-grey ‘baby blue’ plumage, the look chicks get 20 to 30 days after hatching, before their adult black-and-white tuxedo comes in after the first moult. The other three are still too small for visitors to spot. Another pair has laid two eggs, with 38-42 days of shared incubation ahead.

Picture: www.pretoriazoo.org

Salt glands and sun lamps

Each bird wears a coloured flipper tag, males on the right, females on the left, and gets hand-fed pilchards three times daily. They also have built-in desalination: glands above their eyes filter excess salt from seawater fish, which exits through their nostrils, which is why their pool is fresh water, not salt.

Picture: Supplied (enhanced)

Despite the inland address, heat lamps keep things cosy, because African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) are coastal, warm-climate birds, not snow dwellers. With fewer than 10 000 breeding pairs left in South Africa, the species is Critically Endangered.

Picture: Supplied (enhanced)

‘Although we live inland and may feel far removed from the ocean, we still have a responsibility to protect it. Something as simple as throwing litter into a river can have consequences far beyond where we live’, says Elsie Bavarian Briedenhann, Conservation Officer and Trainer: Fur Seals and Penguins at the NZG.

From Friday, 9 October, visitors and school groups can see the colony, with Saturday’s #NotOnOurWatch celebrations including an animal talk, games, enrichment and feeding time.

• Location: National Zoological Garden, Pretoria
• Times: 9:00 to 17:00, Saturday, 10 October