It might be World Penguin Day, but it's far from a happy one for endangered African penguins whose numbers declined 16% in 2023 from a year earlier with only about 8 750 breeding pairs left in the wild.
African penguin numbers will be too low for the survival of the species in their natural habitats in just over a decade, according to Dr Kirsten Day, programme manager for policy and advocacy at BirdLife South Africa. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is considering changing the species' status to critically endangered and it's likely that a decision will be made toward the end of this year, she said.