00:00The African penguin, once numbering in the millions, has now dwindled to fewer than 9,900 breeding pairs,
00:07raising fears it could vanish within a decade.
00:10Conservationists warn that overfishing of sardines and anchovies,
00:15combined with habitat loss and predators, is driving the species towards extinction.
00:20At Stoning Point, colony near Cape Town, researchers are working to boost survival by using artificial nests.
00:28Artificial nests are used to lessen the environmental exposure to the penguins when they are breeding,
00:34so also it would be severe weather conditions, and also to protect them from predators,
00:40so then they are less exposed to the outside, and then it also helps with breeding and protecting the chicks and eggs.
00:48A landmark court ruling this year forced South Africa's government to establish no fishing zones near key colonies,
00:56reducing competition for food during the breeding season.
01:00These closures are beneficial, absolutely, because when penguins are breeding,
01:05they are not able to swim further than 20 to 30 kilometers generally,
01:10and then they have to get back to their colony to provision for their chicks.
01:15Beyond those closures is the problem, and once juveniles fledged the colony,
01:24they go off and they travel large distances where they need to find food,
01:29and bearing in mind that the juveniles are obviously inexperienced and not very good hunters when they first enter the ocean,
01:37the survival is less than 50%.
01:41And so if there is less food availability, you can only imagine how difficult that is.
01:49For now, conservationists hope the legal victory would buy precious time to keep the species from disappearing forever.
01:59For now!
Comments