Why Are Penguins in South Africa?

these are cape town's penguins and when you think of penguins you usually think of

this or this but definitely not this These are South African penguins or as they used to be called jackass penguins because

of their distinctive donkey-like brain noise that they make. Well there you go

And they have been here in Cape Town for a long, long time but the question is, how'd

they get here? To find out where these guys came from, we have to go back

Like, way back. The African penguin story starts over two million years ago And people believe they migrated from Antarctica In fact from fossil records we know there used to be several species of penguin that lived here But in more recent history these penguins have actually been a vital part of Cape Town story

Moving to the 1600s, big sail ships would sail around the tip of Africa on their way to India

and the spice route. And by the time they got to Africa from Europe, oftentimes they were literally starving to death

So despite not tasting very good, penguins ended up being used as a meat source by hungry sailors

They also collected their eggs and even used their fat as fuel for their ships

Working our way to more modern day, penguin eggs were considered a delicacy in the early 1900s

Even South Africa's parliament would enjoy scrambled penguin eggs for breakfast. Pushed to the brink of extinction, fortunately, these types of practices stopped around the mid-1960s

as penguins became more popular for their tourist potential, rather than their food potential

So as you can tell, these guys have quite the storied history here in Cape Town. But if you come here today, where can you find them

Now, the best time to see these guys is in the Cape Town summer. And there are two main areas where they hang out

The first and most popular place is Boulder Beach. This beach is located about an hour outside of Cape Town

in a really cute fishing village called Simonstown. Here they have a penguin sanctuary where you can observe from afar or get up close and hang out on the beach with them To enter the park it costs about 152 Rand for adults and 76 Rand for children

The second spot is at Stony Point. The nature reserve at Stony Point is just over an hour's drive from Cape Town in a coastal village called Betty's Bay

This reserve is definitely less touristy and a bit more rustic but still great for penguin viewing

The entrance fee here is only 25 Rand for adults and 15 Rand for children

Right now we are at Boulder Beach where I am surrounded by penguins and when you come here

there are two main spots. There's one spot next to the visitor center which is along these wooden

boarded paths or you can come down to the beach where I am and get pretty up close and personal them

Now undoubtedly these penguins are adorable but they actually in danger of disappearing Now the key to penguin survival in Africa is the same as penguin survival pretty much anywhere It depends on this This is a sardine And

it's fish like this that make up a well-rounded penguin diet. But the

problem is these fish are disappearing. Sadly right now the oceans around Cape

Town are in danger of being overfished making it much harder for these penguins

to find food. And as a result the penguin population in the last hundred years has

dropped from 1.5 million in 1910 all the way down to only 18,000 of these guys today. Hey buddy

I think he's a little scared to go past me. Oh, there he goes. Make some mad dash for it

So these cute little guys are in a bit of a pickle, but the good news is conservation groups

have taken notice and created these penguin sanctuaries like this one where you and I can

Come, observe, get up close, but without ruffling all their feathers. If you come to Cape Town

you gotta come check these guys out. Ah, look how cute they are

If you enjoyed this, it's just one lesson of our whole Cape Town course

So you should head over to brighttrip.com where you can find that whole course

and everything else in our course library. We'll see you over there

Thank you