Penguin Facts

African Penguin Facts - 25 Facts about the Penguin

Penguin Facts - Did you know that all penguin species are found in the southern hemisphere (except for the occasional Galapagos penguin venturing across the equator)? And African penguins have still not recovered from the Apollo Sea oil spill of 1994 near Dassen Island...

Did you know? The Penguin Route in the Western and Eastern Cape, South Africa. Best months to see the Penguins in South Africa is between the months of August and December.

Here are 25 Facts about the African Penguin you possibly do not know

1. April 25 is unofficially World Penguin Day and January 20th is Penguin Awareness Day
2. All penguin species are found in the southern hemisphere (except for the occasional Galapagos penguin venturing across the equator)
3. African penguins have still not recovered from the Apollo Sea oil spill of 1994 near Dassen Island
4. The subsequent Treasure oil spill in 2000 affected almost twice the number of penguins (mostly around Dassen and Robben island), but the capture, stabilisation and transport of oiled penguins was much more effective
5. Oil kills penguins, impairing the feathers ability to insulate, leaving penguins to die of hypothermia in water, or from starvation on land (they cannot enter the water with hypothermia)
6. St Croix Island Marine Reserve in Algoa Bay has the largest African penguin colony
7. There are only 2 mainland penguin colonies in South Africa – Boulders Beach, and Stony Point
8. African penguins have brilliant underwater vision, but on land they are nearsighted
9. African penguin youngsters have a grey face and do not have the pied black and white pattern of adults
10. They are non migratory although some have ventured as far as Setta Cama, Gabon and Inhaca Island, Mozambique
11. They are particularly partial to anchovy and 80% of their diet is fish
12. They usually lay 2 eggs, incubated by both parents, which hatch after roughly five and a half weeks
13. They begin breeding between the ages of two and six but usually at around four years of age
14. They swim at an average 7km to 24km an hour and can remain underwater for two and a half minutes
15. A recent study has revealed that a young African penguin can clock up an average of 45km a day
16. They have very sharp beaks, so do not even try to handle them
17. The pink patch above their eyes is a sweat gland and the darker it gets the hotter the penguin feels
18. They have salt-water glands in their heads that purify the sea water they drink and they sneeze out the salt crystals
19. Penguins are by nature nervous and do not like being around people, although the Boulders colony is unusually tame
20. When they are stressed they make a sideways movement with their heads
21. Recently an emperor penguin travelled 3 200 kilometres ending up on a beach in New Zealand, where he promptly swallowed a lot of sand, mistaking it for snow – he's been nicknamed 'Happy Feet'
22. Penguins evolved in the tropics and have adapted to cold climates, not vice versa
23. One rehabilitated African penguin was aged 24 years when last seen on Dyer Island in 1995 – one of only five believed to have lived beyond 20 years
24. In Oct 2008 an African penguin, left to starve by its parents on Dyer Island, off Gansbaai, swam all the way around Cape Point and north to Mercury Island near Luderitz – the first sighting of a rubber banded penguin in Namibia
25. The whites of penguin eggs, when boiled, do not set, although the yolk does (a throwback to the years in which we harvested eggs from the island in their thousands)