In this issue
- Schools Art Competition
- Chameleon Talk in Betty’s Bay
- School visits to Stony Point
Schools Art Competition
To promote awareness of the dire future of our penguins, Whale Coast Conservation (WCC) launched an art competition in Overstrand schools.
The brief to the schools was for learners to create art that would highlight the plight of the penguins and the urgent need for penguin conservation.
The participating schools were very enthusiastic, and the youth were inspired. They portrayed their environmental concerns and conservation passions into visual form and produced many excellent works of art. The messages expressed by the young people were heartfelt.
The artworks judged as best at carrying the message of penguin conservation will be used in a national campaign to raise awareness of the perilous future of South Africa’s unique penguins.
The top ten entries and the ten runners-up were announced at a festive prize-giving ceremony held at the African Penguin and Seabird Sanctuary in Gansbaai on 30 May.
Prizes included soft toy penguins from Birdlife SA and mugs printed with their own art for the top ten. The top twenty will also be treated to a free trip on a whale-watching boat courtesy Dyer Island Cruises and Marine Dynamics.
All of the participating learners will have an opportunity to visit CapeNature’s African Penguin colony at Stoney Point in Betty’s Bay.
Chameleon Talk for Kogelberg Botanical Society
Sheraine was the guest speaker at the June Kogelberg Botanical Society sharing about the WCC Chameleon Project. Betty’s Bay is very biodiverse with many open areas covered in fynbos and with a network of extensive wetlands. There are still many chameleons in this landscape.
Alas though, development pressure is also taking its toll here as many plots have been entirely cleared for development – a stark reminder that humans just don’t know how to build in a way that allows coexistence with other species. The evening ended with a quick search of a portion of the Harold Porter gardens for these elusive creatures. We were happy to find a few!
Participants from Laerskool Gansbaai visit Stoney Point
It was a cold and blustery day when 25 learners and their teacher from Laerskool Gansbaai visited the colony. The learners had participated in WCC’s African Penguin awareness art competition.
They were welcomed by rangers from CapeNature who walked with them along the boardwalk giving them information about the penguins and pointing out interesting behaviour as they went along.
There is a real housing shortage for the penguins due to heavy guano harvesting on the historic island colonies, but Stony Point is a relatively new colony and the guano must still accumulate. In the meantime some penguins make their own nests and CapeNature also supplies artificial nests. But the housing crisis is so severe that fights over nesting sites are not uncommon.
There were some parents with chicks.
African Penguins hunt for anchovies and sardines. In the past they had to compete for prey with commercial fishing in Walker Bay. Between 2023 and 2024 the population decreased by 50% due to overfishing.
Megan-Rose Francis of CapeNature and Shirley Mgoboza (left) explained the new protected area around this colony. In early 2025, as a result of a landmark court case, the protected area around this colony was meaningfully expanded, so the penguins now have better access to their prey species.
However, land-based colonies like that at Stony Point have to compete for habitat with humans and also fall prey to land-based predators. CapeNature is now working on increasing the safe real estate available to penguins.
After a welcome lunch and a walk along the beach to see more penguins, they headed to the bus and home.
Despite the cold weather the learners had a ‘swell’ time and voted it the best outing they had ever been on. The art participants from Hawston Secondary also visited the penguin colony late in June.
We thank our sponsors
