In the last eight years, over 60,000 penguins have died that were living in colonies off the South African coast. In 2024, they were even marked as an endangered species. Now scientists may have identified the likely cause of the population decline.
University of Exeter came out with a press release that says over 95% of Robben and Dassen island penguins living in colonies died between 2004 to 2012. These islands have been key breeding grounds for African penguins, though food shortages may have driven mass deaths.
Scientists have revealed that the penguins may have starved to death due to a lack of food supplies. They have estimated that 62,000 birds died from 2004 to 2011. This is also when the sardines on the west coast of South Africa were below 25% of the peak value.
Endangered penguins off South Africa’s coast have likely starved en masse due to food shortages, study shows.
Some populations have dropped by 95% in just eight yearshttps://t.co/6xSH2sU5UL pic.twitter.com/mJ2POx9cVw
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) December 5, 2025
As a result, there must have been severe food scarcity to sustain the penguins. Dr Richard Sherley discussed the penguins being labeled as critically endangered last year due to this consistent decline in their population. Another reason for so many deaths may have been the molting season, where they shed worn-out feathers.
During the molting stage, they have to stay on land to avoid hunting since they are in a vulnerable state without their protective feathers. Sherley wrote, “They are evolved to build up fat and then to fast whilst their body metabolizes those reserves, and the protein in their muscles, to get them through moult.”
🚨💔Nature is sending alarms louder than any government report. Sixty thousand African penguins starving to death after sardine numbers collapse is not a sad statistic.
It is a full scale ecological warning that our oceans are breaking faster than we admit.
This is what… pic.twitter.com/H8jv0sBIxk
— TheCommonVoice (@MaxRumbleX) December 5, 2025
Furthermore, he said that these birds need to regain their health rapidly, and they cannot do so if there is a shortage of food. In just three decades, African penguin numbers have fallen by 80%. His suggestion to recover their population is to reduce sardine exploitation, especially when the biomass is below 25% of the peak.
This will let adults spawn. Moreover, artificial nests, rehabilitation and rescuing may help. So far, a ban on commercial fishing has been placed. Shirly added, “We hope that the recent conservation interventions put in place, together with reduced exploitation rates of sardine when its abundance is less than 25% of the maximum threshold, will begin to arrest the decline and that the species will show some signs of recovery.”
