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Awesome PHOTOS to Commemorate World Penguin Day

PRETORIA – To commemorate  World Penguin Day, here’s a collection on this page of fantastic photos from Southern African John Dickens… who is currently working as a zoological field assistant (with leopard seals and fur seals) on Bird Island, South Georgia. John was born in Zimbabwe and moved to South Africa in 2004 where he studied at […]

PRETORIA – To commemorate  World Penguin Day, here’s a collection on this page of fantastic photos from Southern African John Dickens… who is currently working as a zoological field assistant (with leopard seals and fur seals) on Bird Island, South Georgia.

All photos on this page by John Dickens – @johndickens_boz

John was born in Zimbabwe and moved to South Africa in 2004 where he studied at Rhodes and the University of Cape Town. Nowadays he’s based in Sedgefield… “when I’m not living on little islands in the sub-Antarctic” he told SAPeople.

John watches some evening entertainment on Bird Island… provided by Gentoo Penguins

Eighteen penguin species have been recorded globally and were found to occur only in the Southern hemisphere, with the most notable in Southern Africa being the African Penguin. (See video below.)

Today, on World Penguin Day, the South African Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) outlined its efforts to improve the long-term survival of the endangered African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus).

This seabird was once South Africa’s most abundant seabird, with pairs of over one million in the 1910s, to the present population recorded at less than 25,000 pairs globally.

The DEA, its partners and conservationists such as the African Penguin and Seabird Sanctuary are working tirelessly to reverse the trend and save the African Penguin from extinction.

Watch African Penguins: Conservationists Try to Save Endangered Species