Africa’s only resident penguin species is now officially critically endangered, according to a recent assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Over the past century, the African penguin (Spheniscus demersus) has suffered precipitous declines in its population. In the mid-1950s, there were an estimated 141,000 breeding pairs of African penguins, or 282,000 mature individuals, mostly on small islands off the coasts of Namibia and South Africa. By 2023, this number plummeted to around 9,900 pairs, or 19,800 individuals — a 93% population decline over some 70 years. According to the IUCN’s latest assessment, from July 2024, only about 1,200 penguin pairs are estimated to survive in Namibia, and 8,750 pairs in South Africa. This trend of decline “currently shows no sign of reversing, and immediate conservation action is required,” the IUCN notes. The African penguin has been listed as endangered since 2010, but the persistent decline means its latest conservation assessment has worsened to critically endangered. Several factors have contributed to the bird’s rapid decline. In the past, African penguins would burrow and lay their eggs in thick layers of guano, or bird poop, that had built up over centuries, to escape from heat and predators. However, humans removed the guano to export as fertilizer, leaving the birds to nest in the open. More recently, the penguins have seen their food supplies, especially sardines and anchovies, decline due to both competition with commercial fisheries and climate warming. Two conservation NGOs, BirdLife South Africa and the Southern African…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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