The 25th of April is Internation Penguin Day and with Algoa Bay being home to the biggest population of African Penguins in the world I thought I would do a post to celebrate it. The South African Marine Rehabilitation and Education Centre (SAMREC) is located in the Cape Recife Nature Reserve in Port Elizabeth and the staff and volunteers involved there do an amazing job in the conservation effort of this endangered specie.
Why is 25 April celebrated as International Penguin Day? Well, that is the day that the Adelie penguins in the Antarctic begin their annual northward migration. How they know to start migrating on this specific day I don’t know so lets say give or take a couple of days. The Adelies start migrating in the Antarctic autumn season and don’t return to their colonies until the following spring. They will swim north for only about 600km and stay among floating icebergs, feeding in the surrounding ocean. This means that these penguins don’t really migrate to another landmass but spent their time in the water and resting on the ice until the season changes again and they head back home. The reason for this migration is that the days in Antarctica become darker during winter and by migrating slightly north they have more daylight hours to hunt for food.
An intriguing post! I had no idea that penguins embarked on African shores!
So glad SAMREC is around to help out.