In a tragic turn of Nature, 63 African Penguins were found dead inside the Boulder’s Beach colony in Simon’s Town on Friday, 17 September. After autopsies it was confirmed that the cause of their deaths was due to stings from Cape honey bees.
SANParks released a statement saying the the mass killing is being investigated and is likely to have occurred between Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.
“Officials, expert advisors and veterinarians from South African National Parks (SANParks), the City of Cape Town and penguin experts from the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB), started investigating the possible cause of death. The dead birds were transported to SANCCOB for post-mortems, and biological samples were sent for disease and toxicology testing. No external physical injuries were observed on any of the birds,” read the statement.
According to the post-mortem results, all the penguins suffered multiple bee stings and many dead bees were found close to where the dead birds were found.
“Therefore preliminary investigations suggest that the penguins died because of being stung by a swarm of Cape honey bees. A dead penguin was also found on Fish Hoek beach yesterday which the SANCCOB vet has confirmed also had multiple bee stings. However, samples are still being tested for other toxicity possibilities and diseases to rule out any other potential cause,” said SANParks.
Dr Alison Kock – SANParks Marine Biologist said: We are grateful to all our conservation partners, especially SANCCOB and the City of Cape Town, for assisting us in investigating this unusual event. No more dead African penguins were found on site today, and we will continue to monitor the situation.”
There is only a population of between 2000 – 3000 African Penguins at Boulder’s Beach. It is world-famous for being one of the only beaches you can swim with these birds freely. Massive granite boulders and turquoise water add to the magnificent penguin experience.
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