African penguins — De Hoop breeding colony researchers watch for flickers of hope

The Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob), BirdLife South Africa and CapeNature are evaluating the establishment of a land-based African penguin breeding colony at De Hoop Nature Reserve, linked to the eastward shift of small pelagic fish populations.

Asmall colony of African penguins first self-established itself in the mid-2000s at De Hoop, reaching about 18 breeding pairs with about 100 other penguins regularly visiting the colony. However, by 2008 the colony had been abandoned due to high levels of predation by caracal and there has been no penguin colony there since.

As the African penguin species inches towards extinction, BirdLife South Africa, CapeNature and Sanccob have been working to re-establish this land-based penguin colony in the De Hoop Nature Reserve. 

The chosen site is important because there is a good supply of fish for the penguins with an eastward shift of small pelagic fish populations.

Among the leading causes behind the decline of African penguins has been food shortages. These are caused by shifts in the distributions of their prey species, namely declining small pelagic fish stocks (such as anchovies and sardines) and direct competition with a commercial purse-seine fishery for food.

BirdLife South Africa and Sanccob said that the sardine (and to a lesser extent anchovy) distribution had shifted to the southern Cape coast, away from the West Coast, which was historically where the largest penguin colonies were. 

This made it harder for penguins breeding there to find food. The penguins have been unable to “follow the fish” because of a lack of safe breeding areas on the southern coast. 

By creating a safe breeding site for them and encouraging them to breed there, the teams are helping them “colonise areas with better fish availability”, but the challenges in re-establishing this colony have been considerable with the African penguin population under huge threat of extinction.

The main threat being addressed through this colony is the shift in fish distribution which could offer a good supply of fish for the penguins.

African penguin chicks at De Hoop Nature Reserve. (Photo: Christina Hagen)

Establishment of the De Hoop breeding colony 

South Africa began investigating whether this would be possible in 2010 in response to the African penguin being listed as Endangered that year. By 2015, when BirdLife South Africa had secured funding (mostly through the Isdell Family Foundation), they began a long process of engagement with government entities and other penguin conservation stakeholders, looking at the feasibility and desirability of such an action.

A site selection process was conducted and once the De Hoop Nature Reserve was chosen, the teams had an independent risk assessment drafted, and developed a management plan for the project.

The initial phase of the project, which began in early 2019, was to use techniques known as “social attraction” where conservationists try to mimic an existing penguin colony by installing penguin decoys (model penguins) and playing penguin calls.

African penguin with a decoy at De Hoop Nature Reserve. (Photo: Christina Hagen)

The second phase of the project began in 2021 with the support of Sanccob, to release juvenile penguins which had been hand-reared from abandoned eggs and chicks. The intention was for the penguins to imprint on the colony area and return when they were ready to breed.

A total of 245  penguins have been released since 2021 with 88 released in 2021, 60 in 2022, 66 in 2023, and 31 in 2024 as of August. Breeding adults were observed in June 2022 and the first two chicks were bred in October 2022 — only one pair of penguins bred that year.

But the colony appears to be slowly strengthening as four pairs bred in 2023, raising six chicks between them.

Christina Hagen, a Pamela Isdell Fellow of Penguin Conservation working at BirdLife South Africa, told Daily Maverick that this colony did not yet mark an improvement in the African penguin population as the project was still in the relatively early stages, but creating new colonies had the potential to help increase the population in the future. 

She said that the De Hoop colony was a “proof of concept” that could potentially be rolled out in other suitable areas.

Hagen said that they expected the released penguins to return only from 2024 or 2025, when the first released birds would be three or four years old.

However, the establishment of the colony is further ahead than anticipated because wild penguins (not ones that were released) arrived and began breeding in 2022. 

BirdLife South Africa and Sanccob believe the colony may increase quite quickly, as was seen at Boulders and Stony Point went from one or two pairs to more than 100 within a few years —  this took six years at Boulders and 19 years at Stony Point, due to predation impacts.

Predation and other setbacks 

Sanccob and BirdLife South Africa told Daily Maverick that the main challenge was predation. African penguins are especially vulnerable to predation when breeding on the mainland by terrestrial predators such as leopard and caracal. 

Despite having constructed a predator-proof fence at De Hoop, a honey badger managed to get into the colony in March 2024 and killed 11 penguins, some of which were preparing to breed.

The loss of these penguins was a huge setback to the establishment of the colony, but not unprecedented when looking at the establishment of other African penguin colonies on the mainland. 

The Stony Point colony at Betty’s Bay had several predation events of similar magnitude as the penguins were colonising the area naturally in the 1980s and it is now considered the third-largest penguin colony in South Africa.

Since the incident in March, the teams have reinforced the fence and have plans for longer-term solutions, such as potentially installing a second fence.

Since the honey badger predation, penguin activity has slowly increased again at the colony.

One pair is raising two chicks and there are eight other penguins regularly seen on the camera. The honey badger has been detected by cameras along the fence, but has not managed to access the colony again. 

Collaborative conservation effort

BirdLife South Africa and Sanccob told Daily Maverick that creating a new colony was also a way of diluting threats to penguins by spreading the risk between colonies. 

Elaborating on this, the teams said that most of the remaining large colonies are near ports with a higher risk of oil spills and disturbance from underwater noise. De Hoop is far from any ports, reducing that risk.

BirdLife South Africa is the lead project partner and is responsible for implementing most of the actions, such as the construction of the predator fence, day-to-day maintenance, monitoring of the infrastructure and penguins, and employs a full-time staff member to work on the project. 

CapeNature is the landowner, provides logistical support and assists with monitoring. Sanccob is responsible for the penguin releases, from hand-rearing the penguins to the logistics of the release. 

Penguin release and breeding activities

There have now been 245 penguins released at the colony, thanks to Sanccob’s rigorous egg and chick-rearing procedures.

During the hand-rearing process, the Sanccob team limits handling and interactions to a minimum and these occur only when necessary. Typically, there are large cohorts of penguin chicks undergoing care and this assists them in retaining their wild instincts.

Environmental conditions can affect the success of penguins going out to sea for the first time, therefore the teams seek optimal weather conditions which include low sea swell and the absence of windy conditions.

Penguins are transported to the De Hoop site a day before the planned release and housed in a temporary enclosure overnight with the presence of the BirdLife South Africa and Sanccob team. 

This is to allow the birds to familiarise themselves with their new surroundings. The next day, they are given their last “free” meal of sardines before the enclosure is opened to allow them to wander into the ocean at their own pace. The rest is up to them.

The penguins are released at an age when they would naturally fledge from the colony, around three to four months old. 

Juvenile African penguins before release at De Hoop Nature Reserve. (Photo: Christina Hagan)

They go to sea and spend most of the next three to six years in the water, coming ashore only to moult (replace all their feathers). Not much is known about this period, but the teams said penguins needed to learn how to find food and probably spend some time investigating different areas. 

From the few tracking studies, it seems that many go west and north, up the West Coast of South Africa, with some going into Namibian waters before returning to South Africa. When they are ready to breed, BirdLife South Africa and Sanccob said that the penguins usually return to the colony where they hatched. 

In this case, the team hopes that they will choose the De Hoop colony. 

This has not happened yet as so far none of the penguins observed breeding have been penguins released at De Hoop, and the teams do not know the origin of the birds that have bred.

As the colony is in a highly delicate and vulnerable stage, the teams are trying to cause as little disturbance as possible. A transponder (microchip) ground reader was installed, which can detect if a penguin walking across the antenna has an implanted microchip.

All the penguins released have microchips and there is an intensive programme to microchip penguins in other colonies to monitor survival, movements and breeding. 

The teams have also installed a pan-tilt-zoom camera, which allows them to monitor the penguins remotely.

CapeNature spokesperson Petro van Rhyn told Daily Maverick that the breeding birds indicated that the colony was being used by the birds, but this was a long-term project, which would take time to manifest itself.

“This could take up to 10 years to establish as a formal African penguin breeding colony,” she said.

Challenges such as additional changes in fish migration patterns cannot be predicted, and land and sea-based predators could harm the success of the colony.

“This is a long-term project with many variables, the success of which will only be established in years to come,” van Rhyn said. DM