Penguins living off the coast of South Africa have likely starved to death en masse during their moulting season as a result of collapsing food supplies.
Penguins living off the coast of South Africa have likely starved to death en masse during their moulting season as a result of collapsing food supplies.
In fact, on two of the most important breeding colonies of the African penguin – Dassen Island and Robben Island – some 95% of the birds that bred in 2004 were estimated to have died over the next eight years due to food scarcity.
This is the conclusion of a new study by an international team of researchers from the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment and the University of Exeter, published today in the journal Ostrich: Journal of African Ornithology.
Read more at: University of Exeter
A moulting African penguin. (Photo Credit: Davide Gaglio)
