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Tag: African Penguin

Happy World Penguin Day 2022!

We celebrated at the San Diego Zoo with the African Penguins last month on April 25th! What did you do to celebrate the penguins all around the world?

From left to right: TooToo, Executive Penguin, Afie, Zippy

Ahhhhhh TooToo looks like hys getting attacked by an octopus arm!

Afie with family
Anyone thirsty?
I was born here! Remember me?

We even went live on Facebook and Instagram! Find the videos on our Instagram! On Instagram Connorbalts4 and pico_space_adventures joined us! We all had a great visit! Thank you both for joining!

African Penguin Release at De Hoop Nature Reserve

This is so cool! Co Executive Penguin of Surrounded By Penguins shared this awesome article with me about the long term efforts of a few organizations working together to attempt to establish a new colony of African Penguins that will be protected and closer to their preferred food.

BirdLife South Africa, Cape Nature, along with SANCCOB and other organizations are attempting to establish a African Penguin colony in De Hoop Natural Reserve. This reserve is actually closer to the penguins preferred food. Drive thru anyone? Actually that’s part of what the problem is. They treat the area like a driver thru and don’t colonize. Although they have attempted to in the past…

https://www.birdlife.org.za/what-we-do/seabird-conservation/what-we-do/coastal-seabird-conservation/creating-penguin-colonies/

https://www.birdlife.org.za/what-we-do/seabird-conservation/what-we-do/coastal-seabird-conservation/creating-penguin-colonies/

In 2003 African Penguins did attempt to establish a colony in the area, but predation forced the penguins to abandon the attempt. This time around, they will be protected from predators! With a fence and other tools to help keep predation down. The organization’s are implementing very smart tactics to promote the likelihood that penguins will once again attempt to roost in the area too. In this video they are releasing juvenile penguins in hopes that they will return to roost in the area when they are of breeding age.

The organization’s even made decoy penguins and set up speakers to play penguins calls. All to entice penguins to attempt colonizing in the Reserve. The decoys look so real!

This is an ongoing long project but we at Surrounded By Penguins are excited and hopeful. I have a feeling that it’ll work. These carefully coordinated efforts will be worth it, I’m sure. Thank you to everyone involved with this project. I admire your hard work and patience. Keep up the good work. Hurry back penguins! Squawk!

A Day in Perris… Meeting the Sand Penguin Family

Have you ever heard of sand penguins? Not African penguins or other penguin species that you can find waddling on beaches and other sandy areas, but actual magical sand penguins. These penguins are so rare that only a few picture of them have been seen on the internet. From the first time we found out about them, we became obsessed with a need to meet them.

Well we were in luck! Our recent visit to Perris Lake lead us to a wonderful beach spot where Sand Penguins magically appeared! Once we heard of the special appearance the race was on to meet them before they disappeared into their mysterious hidden nesting grounds in the sea.

No time to pack neatly! Come on everyone lets go! The trek was harder than we thought it would be… Having no time to figure out how to best roll the wagon, we dragged across the beach until we saw some Seagulls.
Excuse me, Seagulls. Can you tell us where we might find the sand penguins? Squawk! Set up here, yeah set up here, they’ll come to you! Squawk! Yeah! They will come to you.
Zippy: What do you think, Sippy? Should we set up here?
Sippy: I am not so sure, Zippy. There’s something about those Seagulls that I can’t quite put my beak on. But I suppose this is just as good as any other place here, so lets set up.
Once set up, everyone agreed that the location was beautiful. Beautiful but no sand penguins in sight.
*Just then… A flock of Seagulls came into view* Huh. What’s this? What are these Seagulls up to?
Whoa! What a flurry! I can barely tell what is going on!
As the Seagulls passed, only one remained… “Squawk! Hello there penguins and friends! March along there towards the water where all the other Seagulls fluttered. There among the sand and sea, you will find what you seek.” And so a small party of brave penguins set out to the shoreline. They said bye to Seagull as they made a u turn over the sand penguins and back towards the other seagulls. Bye Seagull!
With not more than a wiggle and a waddle. They saw that a few of the sand friends and small penguins were already at the shore line. Huh, how did that happen? And wait… Is that what we think it is?
It is! And a baby sand penguin at that! And look there are others! And the small penguins are even guarding.
Sippy: “Hello family! And hello new to us sand family!”
Look at all them!
With the magical sand penguins arriving and the visiting penguins making their way, the seagull took their leave. “Thank you, Seagull! I hope we see you again soon!” said the visiting penguins. “No problem. I am sure we will meet again. Take care!” the Seagull responded
Wow! It seems like we’re late to the party! We better hurry!
Mippy: Wait a minute, I forgot something!
What’d you forget, Mippy?
Mippy: “A kite! To fly so that we can signal thank you to all the other seagulls.”
Fantastic, Mippy! That’s a great idea!
Finally, we made it! Time to have the a sand party of royal proportions!
Some friends even came on a sand raft!
All the friends learned so much about each other. The sand penguins are royalty made of magic. They help to protect all beaches, even when they don’t form into penguins. They love when people play in the sand with them, but they don’t like when people liter on them because it’s dangerous and disrespectful.
The sun was starting to set. It was time to get going. Jack wanted to stay with the sand penguins. Not ready to leave the beach, Jack lagged behind.
Come on, Jack! They all encouraged Jack to come back.
Jack: But I don’t want to leave! What if we never see the sand penguin family again?

Sand Penguins: Remember Jack, and everyone, we are everywhere a beach is, be it by a lake, sea, or ocean.  We are all around and sometimes even come home in your shoes.  Don’t forget to keep the beaches and sand clean, when everything is pristine that’s when we sometimes visit.  We saw you picking up liter and that’s why we showed, so keep up the good work.  Keep on having fun and in sure, some day soon we’ll sea each other again! Get it? Sea. 
Jack sighed… Okee. I guess I’ll go then and keep helping to clean the beach in hopes that we’ll see you next time!

They all said their farewells and thank you’s until it was almost too dark to sea each other… Get it? Sea. Until next time sands penguins, until next time…. Oh! And seagulls too!

Athletic Penguin

Athletic penguin
byu/citrus-fiend inpenguin

Check out this amazing Penguin that’s got more hop than waddle! Did you expect that?!

I watched and thought “No way is that penguin going to go over the rail, surely this cutie will being going around as African Penguins have the attitude to do something clever like that. Maybe under? No! It’s in slow motion! The pengies gonna do it! Air penguin!”

Now I know that penguin’s can be taught a lot of tricks and I do believe that if it was not for them being aquatic birds, people would take them in as pets, but I really didn’t expect an African penguin to jump like that! Over a rail! The same kind of rails I used to grind on when I inline skated and skateboarded (yes, I did both).

Anyone know where this majestic athlete is housed? Just curious, you know, for a friend. Not for kidnapping purposes, I promise. ;oP

Athletic penguin
byu/citrus-fiend inpenguin