Newsletter / Blog
2012-11-23 Keeping track of African Penguins
Where do African Penguins go when they're not breeding? This may sound like
the opening line to a joke, but currently it's a fascinating scientific
question, the answers to which could help stop the precipitous population
decrease of this endangered species.
Researchers from BirdLife South
Africa and the University
of Cape Town have a
better idea of how to answer that question. The Charl van der Merwe Trust and
the Mohammed bin Zayed Conservation Fund have provided funds for 20 satellite
trackers. The study, which is the first of its kind, tracked penguins using the
small, waterproof satellite transmitters. "This is the first time that anyone
has tracked adult African Penguins that have just completed a breeding
cycle," says Dr Ross Wanless, Manager of the Seabird Division at BirdLife
South Africa. Previous tracking studies have
focused almost exclusively on breeding penguins, because researchers can be
sure that they will return to their nests, which allows the retrieval of small
but quite pricy units. "With the advent of improved technology, satellite
devices, which can send data directly to our computers, are now small enough to
attach to penguins but still provide enough battery life to be useful,"
explains Dr Wanless. Satellite trackers were famously used to track how quicklyPeter, Pamela and Percy, released at
Port Elizabeth, returned to the Western Cape following
the Treasure oil spill in 2000.
"The aim of the project is
to find out where the penguins go once they have finished breeding. This is a
crucial period because they need to fatten up to survive two weeks of
moult," says Christina Moseley, BirdLife South Africa's
Coastal Seabird Conservation Manager. During the moult, penguins stay on land,
don't eat, and replace all their feathers. The lucky ones lose only half of
their body weight. "By knowing if they stay close to their breeding
islands or travel away from them, we can see if they are likely to come into
competition for food with the sardine and anchovy fishery and if implementing
special management areas will help," adds Ms Moseley.
In mid-September, 10 satellite
trackers were deployed on penguins from the west coast, at Dassen Island, with the help of CapeNature, who
manage the island. In the east, SANParks, UCT and BirdLife staff went to Bird Island
in Nelson Mandela Bay
and deployed the other 10 devices. "The birds went out to sea for about a
month and we can now report that most of them have made it safely back
home," says Mr Craig Harding, the UCT student who is leading the study.
"There are a couple that are a bit slower in getting back to their island
but overall the project has been a success," he adds. The penguins on Dassen Island
travelled far from the island. One bird travelled north at 50 km/day for 10
days, almost to the border with Namibia.
Most went south and then east, as far as 540 km to Mossel Bay,
before returning to Dassen. The penguins from Bird
Island tended to stay closer to the
island, with the furthest travelling penguin going almost as far as East London, a distance of about 170 km. The team now
have the tricky task of trying to recover the satellite transmitters so they
can use them for further work, possibly to track penguins after they have
finished moulting.
The penguin's movements can be
followed online at www.birdlife.org.za. |