You Can Help

You can help endangered African penguins...

• by volunteering: with this project, at SANCCOB, with a coastal clean up today or on Coastal Clean up Day 20th September,on an EarthWatch Penguin Project or with other African penguin research

• by donating:  to this project, via the Animal Demography Unit, or the Marine Research Institute through University of Cape Town marine research  and to other organisations involved in penguin research and conservation such as donating to SANCCOB and or Birdlife South Africa

• by learning more about them: check out the IUCN red list amazing species details, read the latest African Penguin news on PenguinWatch,  visit the penguins at the Boulders or Stony Point colonies, see more African penguin pictures videos and fact files on ARKive

• by caring for our oceans:

Seabirds are just one of many reasons to care about the state of our oceans. Penguins depend on the sea for their food.  On Robben Island, we occasionally find penguins ensnared in discarded fishing line. So if you ever see discarded plastic line on the beach please pick it up and bin it.

 A simple thing, everyone can do, is to cut back on the amount of throw-away-plastic stuff you use. This can be done by bringing bags with you when shopping or just avoiding using a plastic straw when you have a cool drink. It all helps to prevent discard-able plastic items ending up in the sea and harming marine life.  Keeping the sea clear of litter and pollution, helps protect penguins.

For more ideas of every day ways to help penguins see the Penguin Promises website.

Spot the penguin, Kate recording nest details as part of EarthWatch monitoring.

A penguin crossing the road in front of the maximum security prison buildings brings to mind the inspirational words of Tata Nelson Mandela, "I learned that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it."