500 African penguins killed due to cold snap

JOHANNESBURG - The cold snap that has swept across South Africa in the first week of the World Cup has killed nearly 500 African penguin chicks, South Africa’s national parks authority said.

The dead chicks represent half the young penguin population at Algoa Bay in Eastern Cape province, SANParks said late Tuesday.

“The chicks, aged between a few weeks old and about two-months-old and covered only with down feathers, succumbed to the cold and wet weather which has hit Bird Island,” SANParks spokeswoman Megan Taplin was quoted by SAPA news agency as saying.

More penguins had died on St Croix Island near Port Elizabeth, home to 300 breeding pairs, the largest breeding colony of African penguins in the country, SANParks said.

Rough seas had made it impossible to reach the island to assess the exact number of dead penguins.

While it is not uncommon for large numbers of penguin chicks to die of cold, the loss of so many young was an “added threat” to the species survival, SANParks said.

The African penguin was recently reclassified as an endangered species, according to SAPA.

Taplin said rangers on the island, where 20 millimetres of freezing rain fell this week, were trying to make shelters for the birds and drain nests.

Several cities hosting the World Cup were plunged into freezing conditions this week. Temperatures fell to -2 Celsius in Johannesburg Tuesday night and -5 in the central city of Bloemfontein.