Rescued penguin eggs have started hatching at SANCCOB, and the videos are just the cutest; SANCCOB is hoping people will adopt eggs to help them care for the coming chick season.
Cape Town, South Africa (28 April 2022) – SANCCOB (Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds) is in the process of hatching rescued penguin eggs, and we cannot get enough! The fuzzy chicks are the hope for the species’ future.
Penguin numbers across South African coastlines are in decline. This is worrying, which makes saving every penguin vital. The team is preparing for the penguin breeding season and remains hopeful while guarded in their expectations due to the declining number of fish along the West Coast.
Martine Viljoen shared a video of a penguin chick taking a break after hatching out of its egg. The egg will have been collected from an abandoned nest.
“SANCCOB chick rearing unit exists to bolster our wild endangered African penguin population, by hatching out eggs and raising chicks that would otherwise not have survived out in the wild, with the purpose of release post-rehabilitation” – Martine Viljoen
From 01 January to 30 March, SANCCOB admitted 402 African penguin eggs to its centres in Cape Town and Gqeberha. This is the highest number of eggs ever admitted to SANCCOB in a single year (as of March).
“We need your support in taking care of these precious eggs, so we can play our crucial role in saving the African penguin from extinction. With only 10,300 breeding pairs left in South Africa, we have to do everything we can to help grow these numbers.” – SANCCOB
SANCCOB runs an adopt-an-egg campaign which helps them cover the costs of feeding these fluffy, fuzzy seabirds as well as any medical care they may need. If you would like to adopt an egg, you can do so here.
Take a look at the video of the newly hatched penguin chick below.
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