Also called the jackass penguin.
The only species of penguins that breeds in southern Africa. Adults are jet black, with diagnostic striped head and sides. Some have a double breast band as in the Magellanic penguin, but with a narrower upper band and overall lacking the narrow white line around the base of the mandible. Flightless, with flipper-like wings. An inverted black ‘U’ superimposed on the chest.
Juveniles grey above, including the head, lacking bold patterning. Some juveniles molt part of all of their heads to adult plumage before their first complete molt. Chicks uniformly brown and fluffy.Between 60 – 70 cm and a weight of 2.2 – 3.5 kg.
A common occupant of offshore islands, occasionally also colonizing the mainland. Feeds largely on fish, notably pilchards, anchovy, horse mackerel and round herring, diving to depths of 30 meter and circling underwater to concentrate the fish.
Two Oceans (2007), Birds of Southern Africa (2020).
This is an endangered species. Numbers have declined radically over the past 100 years, from an estimate of 2 million to about 150,000 individuals before 2010. Since 2004, population has fallen by half, with currently 26,000 breeding pairs at islands and a few coastal sites along the west and south coasts of South Africa. Breeds year round.
Probable causes include oil spills, competition with commercial fisheries for food, harvesting of penguin eggs (which ceases in 1967) and collection of guano. The last activity prevents penguins from nesting in burrows dug in the guano, thus exposing their eggs to heat and predators.
F*CK FISH 