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African Penguin

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Birds

               iAfrican Penguin
           Scientific classification

   Kingdom:   Animalia
   Phylum:    Chordata
   Subphylum: Vertebrata
   Class:     Aves
   Order:     Sphenisciformes
   Family:    Spheniscidae
   Genus:     Spheniscus
   Species:   S. demersus

                                Binomial name

   Spheniscus demersus
   (Linnaeus, 1758)

   The African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus), also known as the Jackass
   Penguin (after its loud mating call), and the Blackfooted Penguin, is
   found on the south-western coast of Africa, living in colonies on 24
   islands between Namibia and Algoa Bay, near Port Elizabeth, South
   Africa, with the largest colony on Dyer Island, near Kleinbaai. Two
   colonies were established by penguins in the 1980s on the mainland near
   Cape Town at Boulders Beach near Simon's Town and Stony Point in
   Betty's Bay. Mainland colonies probably only became possible in recent
   times due the reduction of predator numbers, although the Betty's Bay
   colony has been attacked by leopards. The only other mainland colony is
   in Namibia, but it is not known when this was established.

   Boulders Beach is a popular tourist attraction, for the beach, swimming
   and the penguins. The penguins will allow people to approach them as
   close as a meter (three feet), and so are much photographed.

   The closest relatives of the African Penguins are the Humboldt and
   Magellanic penguins found in southern South America and the Galápagos
   Penguin found in the Pacific Ocean near the equator. African Penguins
   like warm weather.

   African Penguins grow to 68-70 cm (26.7-27.5 in) tall and weigh between
   2 and 4 kilograms. They have a black stripe and black spots on the
   chest, the spots being unique for every penguin, like human
   fingerprints. They have pink sweat glands above their eyes. The hotter
   the penguin gets, the more blood is sent to these sweat glands so it
   may be cooled by the surrounding air, thus making the glands more pink.
   The males are larger than the females and have larger beaks, but their
   beaks are pointer than those of the Humboldt.

   They breed throughout the year, the main breeding season starting in
   February. Females lay two eggs, with an incubation period of 38-42
   days. They are a monogamous species and the lifelong partners take
   turns to incubate their eggs and feed their young. The moulting season
   is between October and February, with the majority of the birds
   moulting in November and December, after which they head out to sea to
   feed (since they do not feed during moulting season and remain on
   land). Their diet includes small fish such as sardines and anchovies.
   The penguins obtain water from the fish they eat.

   African Penguins have an average lifespan of 10-11 years, the females
   reaching sexual maturity at the age of 4 years, and males at the age of
   5 years. The highest recorded age for a bird of this species has been
   24, however several individual birds have lived to be up to 40 years
   old in aquarium settings. The current population (as of 2003) estimated
   at 179,000 adults, with 56,000 breeding pairs.

   As recently as the mid-twentieth century, penguin eggs were considered
   a delicacy and were still being collected for sale. Unfortunately, the
   practice was to smash any eggs found a few days prior to gathering, in
   order to ensure that only fresh ones were sold. This added to the
   drastic decline of the penguin population around the Cape coast, a
   decline which was hastened by the removal of guano from islands for use
   as fertilizer, eliminating the burrowing material used by penguins.
   Penguins remain susceptible to pollution of their habitat by
   petrochemicals from spills, shipwrecks and cleaning of tankers while at
   sea.

   Disaster struck on June 23, 2000, when the iron ore tanker MV Treasure
   sank between Robben Island and Dassen Island, oiling 19,000 adult
   penguins at the height of the best breeding season on record for this
   vulnerable species. The oiled birds were brought to an abandoned train
   repair warehouse in Cape Town to be cared for. An additional 19,500
   un-oiled penguins were removed from Dassen Island before the oil slick
   reached their island, and were released 800 miles up the West coast.
   This gave workers enough time to clean up the oiled waters and shores
   before the birds could complete their long swim home. Tens of thousands
   of volunteers descended upon Cape Town to help with the rescue and
   rehabilitation process, which was overseen by IFAW (International Fund
   for Animal Welfare) and the South African Foundation for the
   Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB), and took more than three
   months to complete. Although this was the largest animal rescue event
   in history, more than 91% of the penguins were successfully
   rehabilitated and released - an amazing feat that could not have been
   accomplished without such a tremendous international response.

   The African Penguin is one of the species to which the Agreement on the
   Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds ( AEWA) applies.

   African Penguins, showing the black arch-shape and black chest-spots

   African Penguins on Boulders Beach near Cape Town.

   An albino African Penguin, born at Bristol Zoo, Bristol, England

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Penguin"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
