We're ending the year on quite a high! We're so pleased to announce that Xolani Lawo has agreed to serve as a KruShan Foundation Advisor. Xolani has been working with endangered African penguins for 16 years and is well-known as the "penguin whisperer." His extensive experience with African penguins and seabirds began in the Eastern Cape. After a move to the Western Cape in 2014, he has assisted several organizations working to save the African penguin from extinction. Welcome Xolani! We're so …
We’re Growing—Welcome Pinkey
We are so happy to announce that Pinkey Ngewu has joined us as an Advisor.After serving as a nature guide for several years, Pinkey became involved with African penguin rescue and conservation in 2015 when she joined the Dyer Island Conservation Trust, where she serves as manager for conservation, fundraising, and administration, including the African Penguin and Seabird Sanctuary. Pinkey is also an environmental educator and founded the Deep Blue Ambassadors program, a three-year educational …
Artificial Nests Help African Penguins Beat the Heat
African penguins didn't have a homelessness problem and were happily laying their eggs in burrows dug into centuries-old layers of their excrement until the 1800s when traders discovered that African penguin guano was an excellent fertilizer and shipped it to the United Kingdom. The guano burrows had provided African penguins with these benefits. • A constant micro-climate• High relative humidity• Buffered temperatures• Little exposure to the wind• Shelter from rain and …
Artificial Nests Help African Penguins Beat the HeatRead More
Hunger Crisis—How KruShan Foundation Ensured over 350 African Penguin Chicks Won’t Starve
Our partner, the Dyer Island Conservation Trust, cares for approximately 350 African penguin chicks at the African Penguin and Seabird Sanctuary (APSS) between October and January. Dr. Liezl Pretorius, a zoologist and veterinarian at APSS, explains that during this time, African penguin parents endure their annual molt, rendering their feather coat non-waterproof. Consequently, they cannot catch fish to feed their offspring. Penguin chicks are left in their nests, but they are too …
Hunger Crisis—How KruShan Foundation Ensured over 350 African Penguin Chicks Won’t StarveRead More
African Penguin Parenting Perils
Picture the scene. They were a perfect pair. Their appetites partially satiated by feeding on fish. Yet, now their chicks squawk with hunger. Their energy is depleting. African penguins mate for life and are good parents, yet often face a cruel dilemma. Each October/November marks the end of the African penguin breeding season when the chicks are supposed to be fat, healthy, and ready to leave the nest. The parents face a dilemma: not only do they have to feed their young, but they also …
When Does 1 Equal 45?
When we help rear an African penguin chick or rehabilitate an injured African penguin, that act has a long-term ripple effect that increases the population of African penguin colonies. Indeed, every African penguin counts. The loss of 45 (conservative estimate) future African penguins makes it all the more sad when an injured African penguin doesn't make it. We were at the Boulders Beach African penguin colony the first week of August 2023 when we spotted an injured African penguin, …
More African Penguin Chicks? Yes Please!
Protecting the endangered African penguin is an urgent matter requiring immediate action. Just 1% of African penguins remain in the wild—a horrific decline. Experts predict that without intervention, they may go extinct in the wild as soon as 2030. One of the ways we help fortify the declining African penguin population is through our support of chick-bolstering programs—hand-rearing and releasing rescued African penguin chicks and chicks born from rescued eggs—that have long proven …
An Incredible Side Trip During our South Africa October/November 2022 Site Visits
We enjoyed a remarkable opportunity to meet people in an area you won't find on any South Africa tours. In fact, most South African residents avoid the Khayelitsha township of informal settlements or slums out of fear for their safety with those fears mostly well-founded. Yet, here we were, venturing into a place that many fear and don't understand because of the sense of otherness that can be so harmful. Our guides were from Zonke Energy, which provides safe, affordable, clean energy to …
An Incredible Side Trip During our South Africa October/November 2022 Site VisitsRead More