Along with a series of partner organisations, the ADU runs an Earthwatch project on Robben Island which has monitored the penguin population at that colony for the last 12 years. Last year in June, we were joined on Team 4 by Charles Bergman, or Chuck as he likes to be known. Chuck is a Professor of English at the Pacific Lutheran University in the USA and a freelance writer and photographer. While he was with us on Robben Island, he researched an article on African Penguins. That article has been published this month in Smithsonian Magazine and you can read it on their website. ADU team members Richard Sherley and Kate Robinson were in the field with Chuck and are quoted in the article.

Chuck has a great collection of penguin photos on his website, including the one used here.

PhD student Kate Robinson has just started penguin tracking for the current breeding season. She is based on Robben Island, and other ADU students do fieldwork at most of the other Western Cape colonies. The map shows the first two tracks she has obtained this year, with the penguins feeding southeast of Robben Island. These are tracks from last weekend, and represent one-day foraging trips. We aim to obtain a large enough sample of tracks each year, consistently spaced throughout the breeding season so that we can compare the amounts of effort that parents invest in feeding their chicks on an annual basis, and also so that we can make comparisons between colonies. This research is aimed at helping us understand how penguins interact with their fish prey.

Kate maintains a research blog at penguin-tracks.blogspot.com which she updates regularly, and where you can keep abreast of her fieldwork and research this breeding season. You can also find details about the GPS tracking devices on the blog. It is a good blog to bookmark.

Four of this year's class of 16 BSc(Hons) students in Zoology are doing their projects under the supervision of ADU staff, postdocs and honorary research associates. Today's welcome is to Jordan-Laine Calder. Jordan started out in Johannesburg, but has spent most of her life in Cape Town. Her school years were mainly at Reddam House, matriculating in 2008. She did a BSc (2009–2011) at UCT, graduating with distinction. She is doing BSc(Hons) in Zoology this year.

Her honours project will focus on the long-term effects of oiling on the endangered African Penguin at the breeding colony on Robben Island. The last major oil spill to have an impact on these birds was the Treasure spill of 2000. Since then, data have been collected on the breeding success of the birds that were, and were not, oiled during the spill. She will help collect the data for the 12th year. Previous studies have shown that having been oiled affects breeding success, especially during the stage of chick rearing when energy demand is greatest. Jordan's project investigates if this impact still occurs 12 years after the spill. Understanding the long-term impacts of oil spills is an important component in the conservation of the African Penguin.

Jordan says: "If I had not chosen to do science, my second option would have been fine art. I love to paint and draw (I guess I get that from my father who is an artist). I do love spending time outdoors whether it be frisbee with my dog on the beach, mountain biking or just exploring new places. During my recent trip to Thailand I discovered the underwater world and am now hooked on scuba."

Richard Sherley is an ADU postdoc. His PhD thesis was entitled Factors Influencing the Demography of Endangered Seabirds at Robben Island, South Africa: Implications and Approaches for Management and Conservation. He graduated from the University of Bristol in 2010, and the pdf of his thesis can be downloaded from his website. This newly published paper was originally a chapter in his thesis.

The paper deals with an important issue in methods to reverse the current decline in the population decline of African Penguins. Can we find ways to increase breeding productivity, ie the number of chicks produced per breeding attempt? This paper thus deals with a practical conservation management question: "Should we place artificial nests in colonies?" The answer is "YES, it increases the production of chicks by 9–13% per egg."

The paper has just been published online by Emu, the Australian ornithological journal, which describes itself as "the premier journal for ornithological research and reviews related to the southern hemisphere". The full citation to the paper is Sherley RB, Barham BJ, Barham PJ, Leshoro TM, Underhill LG. 2012. Artificial nests enhance the breeding productivity of African Penguins (Spheniscus demersus) on Robben Island, South Africa. Emu. DOI 10.1071/MU11055. Both the Abstract and the Acknowledgements are given below. The team of people who generated the database for this paper is large, and we want to especially thank them for their contributions.

ABSTRACT: Loss of nesting habitat threatens many cavity nesting birds worldwide and has contributed to the decline of several species of burrow-nesting seabirds. Replacing lost habitat with artificial nesting structures is considered to be a useful conservation intervention. Here we report on an investigation into the effectiveness of such a strategy – providing artificial nests for the endangered African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus) at a colony on Robben Island, South Africa. The re-colonisation of Robben Island by breeding African Penguins in the 1980s was partly attributed to the availability of shaded nesting habitat under introduced vegetation. However, the suitability of this habitat had not been tested empirically. In addition, artificial nests have been present at Robben Island since 2001, but whether they were a viable means of providing improved nesting habitat was not known. The reproductive output of African Penguins was monitored on Robben Island from 2001 to 2010. Breeding success varied between years but, overall, was within the range of figures previously reported for the species. Relative to pairs in nests under vegetation, birds occupying artificial nests and nests in abandoned buildings had increased nesting survival during chick-rearing, with 9 and 13% more chicks fledged per egg hatched over the study period. These artificial structures seem to offer the advantages of shelter from the weather and protection from predators, without the risks of collapse associated with natural burrows in non-guano substrates. This study supports findings from Namibia, and also supports the continued use of artificial nests as a conservation tool throughout the range of the species.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This study was supported by our institutes and funded by the Earthwatch Institute, the SeaChange Programme of the National Research Foundation and the Leverhulme Trust. The Oceans and Coasts (OC) branch of the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) and the Robben Island Museum provided logistic support and permission to conduct the study. The wooden nest-boxes were designed by Bruce M. Dyer and built by staff at the DEA workshop. Nola J. Parsons helped to maintain and replace the wooden boxes on the island. Lauren J. Waller provided additional information and facilitated the acquisition of the artificial burrows. The Dyer Island Conservation Trust, the Leiden Conservation Fund and several former Earthwatch volunteers sponsored the 70 artificial burrows currently on Robben Island. Bruce M. Dyer, Leshia Visagie, Nola J. Parsons, Duncan Bolton and several Earthwatch Project volunteers and staff helped to dig in the artificial burrows and to conduct the nest monitoring. Lorien Pichegru and Barbara Walters provided additional information, Sue Kuyper provided logistical support and Birgit Erni and Res Altwegg gave advice on statistical analysis.

The pdf of the paper is available from Richard Sherley.

Hennie Viljoen and Christopher Harris are the co-owners of a company called Infinity Aviation. They say: "Infinity Aviation is a new and inspired company suppling aviation parts in South Africa. The company was registered on 10 March 2009 due to an extreme demand for a high service level and a quick supply parts operation. The company's office is situated in Kempton Park, Johannesburg, South Africa. It is just five minutes away from O.R. Tambo International Airport, so dispatch to our clients is easy and trouble free. The company is structured to meet the anticipated demand for parts based on previous experiences and the input from an existing large and supportive client base. There are clients throughout South Africa, as well as in numerous other countries within the African continent. Shipments arrive from the USA weekly, so there is a 5–7 day turnaround time from date of order. Infinity Aviation specialises in General Aviation, Sport Aviation as well as the Business Jet and Prop Jet markets.

"Part of Infinity Aviation's vision for the future is to help ensure the survival of biodiversity in Africa, and in fact worldwide. We have therefore decided to sponsor conservation research for African Penguins at the Animal Demography Unit. The African Penguin is currently listed as 'Vulnerable' to becoming extinct in the near future, unless rsearchers can work out the actions to be taken now to reverse the current declines. We are alarmed that the population of the African Penguin has reduced by about half its size between 2004 and 2012, having dropped by about 90% during the 20th century."

From the ADU side, we are hugely grateful to Hennie and Christopher for their support. Their support will become part of the bursary of incoming penguin PhD student, Joana Agudo, and we will formally recognise their contribution on Penguin Watch, the website designed to contain up-to-date news and information about the issues facing penguins: "Penguins are ambassadors of marine biodiversity: they should be seen as flagship species for conservation, with their fate representing that of many of the world's marine ecosystems and organisms." Thank you, Hennie and Christopher.