2014 foraging data collection begins!

African Penguins entering the sea at the Stone Quarry.

Dr. Antje Steinfurth is on Robben Island looking for suitable nests where adult African Penguins are provisioning for small chicks for GPS Temperature Depth logger deployments.  Soon foraging penguin data collection at Robben Island will get underway. The current EarthWatch team, being led by Dr. Richard Sherley, is lending a hand with the start of data collection this year. The team has been working hard at nest monitoring over the last week and has identified some potential candidate adult penguins that  may be suitable to be equipped with a GPS device for one foraging trip.  The EarthWatch team is the 3rd one working on the African Penguin Project so far this year. The previous teams laid important ground work for this year's research. All the teams are monitoring penguin nesting success and chick condition in areas of the penguin colony, counting moulting birds, conducting rabbit and game censuses. Teams record the details of any banded or transpodered penguins as this is valuable information for survival analyses as well as immigration and emmigration rates to and from the colony. Thanks to all the team members and volunteers that assist with this research.
Good luck to Antje and the EarthWatch team with the field work. Swim well penguins!

Can you spot the small penguin chick this adult is brooding? Photo courtesy of Brian Hall.