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.

The University of Cape Town Research Committee has recently confirmed the reappointment of Peter Barham as an Honorary Research Associate of the ADU. Peter is Professorial Teaching Fellow in Physics at the University of Bristol in the UK. Our collaboration with Peter stretches back to the Third International Penguin Conference, which was held in Cape Town in 1996. He and his wife Barbara were involved in cleaning penguins during the Treasure oil spill of 2000. In 2001, he was one of a partnership of researchers that initiated an Earthwatch project, called South African Penguins. 12 years later, this project is still running, and as I write this, Peter is on Robben Island leading the second team of Earthwatch volunteers for 2012. Our Earthwatch project on Robben Island has collected an incredibly valuable dataset that measures the annual breeding productivity of African Penguins. South African Penguins is a partnership involving the Robben Island Museum, Oceans & Coasts (DEA), School of Physics at Bristol University, Bristol Zoological Gardens and the ADU at UCT.

Peter has multiple interests. His "official" research interest in the School of Physics at the University is in polymer physics, ie plastic and rubber. He is researching the production of environmentally friendly and biodegradable plastics. His passion is for penguins, and he has been able to combine penguins and polymers by designing and testing rubber flipper bands for penguins. His third interest is the new emerging science called Molecular Gastronomy. In other words, he understands the physics and chemistry that goes into making food taste great. He has even written a book on this. He writes: "Anyone interested in the science of cooking might be interested in my book, which is simply called The Science of Cooking." The book is published by Springer and the ISBN is 978 3540 67466 5. Peter has held the world record for making the fastest litre of ice cream. He first mixes the ingredients, and then freezes them by pouring in liquid nitrogen. I have witnessed this phenomenon, and can tell everyone that ice cream made in this way is amazingly smooth and delicious, because it freezes so fast that the crystals are tiny.

At UCT, he is cosupervisor of the MSc project of Leanne Tol who will be doing research on penguins on Robben Island. He will be doing at least one public lecture in Cape Town, later on in the year, in August.

Today we welcome Yolokazi Galada to the ADU as an MSc student. She is part of the ADU's penguin research team.

Yolo grew up in the Eastern Cape, in Mthatha. She graduated with a BSc in 2008 from the Walter Sisulu University (formerly University of Transkei). In 2009, she worked as an intern at the Oceans & Coasts Branch of the Department of Environmental Affairs. She applied successfully for the "seabird" post on Marion Island for the team that overwintered in 2010/11, and spent 13 months on the island, monitoring the seabirds, mainly penguins. She did her BSc(Hons) at UCT over two years, doing a couple of months of the course in 2010 before heading off the island for the year, and completing it after she returned from Marion Island last year. She did the fieldwork for her honours project during the year on the island – it required additional observations to those she was making for the official seabird monitoring. The title of her honours project was A comparison of the annual cycles of four penguin species found in the sub-Antarctic Marion Island.

For her MSc project she will be based on Dyer Island, a CapeNature reserve. She will assist the CapeNature staff with the seabird monitoring there, where the primary focus is on the African Penguin. She will analyse the data she collects in conjunction with similar data currently being collected at the other penguin colonies by other members of the ADU penguin team and the long-term penguin database assembled mainly by Oceans & Coasts, CapeNature and the ADU.

Yolo is supported by the Leiden Conservation Foundation, ACCESS and CapeNature, which provide both bursaries and logistics. Her MSc is supervised by Lauren Waller (CapeNature), Rob Crawford (Oceans & Coasts) and myself.

The 8th International Penguin Conference, which will be held at the University of Bristol from 2nd to 6th September 2013, will be open for submission for papers and posters as well as early registration at a reduced fee from 9th April 2012. This post is based on the second circular sent out today by the Local Organising Committee.

Submission of papers and posters

The deadline for submission of papers and posters is 31 December 2012. So please start thinking about the work you want to present now – you can submit your abstract today!

We particularly encourage papers on fossil penguins and the evolution of penguins (a field that has not featured at recent penguin conferences) as well as papers on all aspects of penguin behaviour and conservation.

Please submit papers using the template which can be downloaded from the conference web site as a word or pdf document. 

Registration and fees

The full conference fee will be £300; however, we are currently offering an early bird reduced conference fee of £250 – this will be available for all registrations up to the end of January 2013; details will be available on the web site from 9th April.

Late registrations (after 12 August 2013) will be charged a higher fee due to the increased administration costs of adjusting numbers at the last minute.

We are offering a reduced student fee of £150 for registration before mid July. To qualify you must be enrolled on a full time university degree programme in a relevant discipline. We will require a letter from your university authorities confirming your student status before we will confirm your registration as a student.

Accommodation

We can offer reasonably priced accommodation in University residences, we hope also to negotiate good rates with some local hotels.

There are two options for University accommodation which can be booked via the conference web site:

Clifton Hill House which is an eight minute walk from the main conference venue provides single study bedrooms with breakfast at a total cost of £170 for arrival on 1st September and departure on 6th September.

Durdham Hall which is a 30 minute walk from the main venue offers single study bedrooms with en-suite facilities at a total cost of £180 for arrival on 1st September and departure on 6th September (note we will provide a coach to take people staying at Durdham to and from the venue).

We expect the total cost of a double room in local hotels will be around £300 to £400 for arrival on 1st September and departure on 6th September.

A third circular with further information about the conference dinner as well as additional social and public events will be posted towards the end of 2012.

For further information please visit our web site at www.penguinconference.org

All enquiries should be directed to enquiries@penguinconference.org

International Organising Committee.

Peter Barham (Chair), Jonathan Banks, Dee Boersma, Popi Garcia-Borboroglu, Phil Trathan, Heather Urquhart, Lauren Waller, Eric Woehler.

Local Organisers

Peter Barham (University of Bristol, Chair), Barbara Barham (Secretary), Tilo Burghardt (University of Bristol), Christoph Schwitzer (Bristol Zoo Gardens), Neil Maddison (Bristol Zoo Gardens).

On the ADU website adu.org.za, we are currently welcoming all the new postgraduate students, postdocs, and Honorary Research Associates. Today, we welcome (or rather re-welcome) a penguin student.

Kate Robinson completed a BSc at McGill University, Canada, in 2008, and spent two years working for the Canadian Wildlife Service, coordinating shorebird monitoring in eastern Canada: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. With the support of the Marine Research Institute at UCT and the Leiden Conservation Trust, she started an MSc in the ADU last year. Her MSc project has been upgraded to a PhD from the start of this year. This gives us the opportunity to "re-welcome" Kate in her new capacity as a PhD student. Supervisors are Rob Crawford (Oceans & Coasts), Richard Sherley, Antje Steinfurth and me.

Kate is responsible for the hi-tech African Penguin monitoring on Robben Island. She equips breeding penguins with GPS loggers, collecting foraging trip data throughout the breeding season. Logger deployments are timed to coincide with pelagic fish surveys taking place around the island to gain a better understanding of penguin foraging movements and behaviour in relation to pelagic fish densities and distributions over time and space around Robben Island. The research aims to answer questions of how foraging behaviour and effort varies with prey availability at this colony and what links might exist with demographic parameters such as chick condition.

Kate is part of the ADU penguin team which works in close collaboration with the Oceans & Coasts Branch of the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) and the Fisheries Branch of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF). The GPS loggers are bought by DEA, and the ADU helps by doing the deployments of the loggers on the penguins. This fieldwork requires enormous amounts of skill and dexterity to attach the loggers, and then nerves of steel waiting for the penguins to return. A logger makes one trip on a penguin and then gets removed and the precious data downloaded. The data consist of accurate positions of the penguins at intervals of a few minutes. There is also detailed information about dive behaviour.

Kate shares four of the 30 tracks she obtained from Robben Island penguins last year: "The red track was made in May, the yellow track in June and the green and the blue tracks in July. The penguin with the red track made 430 dives during a 10-hour trip, and the yellow penguin made 349 dives in a 10.8-hour trip. The total length of the green track, the longest one, is 62 km. The penguin that made the blue track got into the sea at 07h15 on the morning of 13 July, at dawn, covered a total distance of 46 km, and got back to Robben Island at 18h00 that evening, at dusk. This is the typical one-day foraging trip of a penguin with chicks in the nest."

Kate has a blog, called Penguin Tracks and once the African Penguin breeding season starts in autumn, she plans to update it regularly.

Last year two of the committee members of the Animal Keepers Association of Africa (AKAA) decided to embark on a walk of some 150 km from the coast just adjacent to Dyer Island to the Boulders Beach African penguin colony in Simon's Town. This ambitious exercise, termed "Waddling for a Week" was all to raise awareness of the plight of the African penguin.

The waddle was so successful that they plan to do it all again this year. They will be waddling fom Monday 16 April to Saturday 21 April 2012.

If you would like to support them, you can download the information flyer about this year's waddle from here or find out more about the walk on their website.

ADU postdoc Richard Sherley is presenting a seminar on Monday in the MA-RE/SANCOR seminar series. Richard's topic is Could local and regional prey availability both have roles in influencing the breeding success of African Penguins Spheniscus demersus at Robben Island? The presentation is on Monday 13 February, at 13h00, in the Oceanography Seminar Room, UCT. The Department of Oceanography is on the lowest level of the RW James Building at the north end of University Avenue. Most of this building is occupied by the Department of Physics.

ABSTRACT: Past population trends of African Penguins Spheniscus demersus breeding in the Western Cape, South Africa, as well as their breeding success, have been linked to the abundances of their main prey species, Sardine Sardinops sagax and Anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus. During the late 1990s and the 2000s, the abundance and distribution of both fish species changed markedly and this study re-examines past relationships in this light. The breeding participation and reproductive output of African Penguins was monitored at Robben Island from 2001–2009. The number of pairs breeding in each year and chick-growth rates were influenced by Sardine abundance in the November proceeding each breeding season, while nest success and chick-fledging rates were positively influenced by the annual purse-seine catch of Anchovy within 30 nautical miles of the colony. In addition, chick-fledging rates were depressed in two-chick broods during years when Anchovy contributed less than 75% by mass to the diet of breeding African penguin. Previously reported relationships between the overall abundance of small pelagic fish in the southern Benguela ecosystem and penguin breeding success at Robben Island were not replicated here, possibly as a result of the recent changes in the populations of these fish in South African waters resulting in a decoupling of local and overall prey availability. Taken together, these results highlight the importance of local food availability to African Penguins during the reproductive cycle, but also the importance of adequate prey abundance during the non-breeding season.

Richard is part of the large ADU team doing research trying to understand why the African Penguin is in decline. Two years ago, the IUCN threat classification of the African Penguin was changed from "Vulnerable" to "Endangered", one category closer to "Extinct in the Wild." Uncovering the real issues for penguin decreases is becoming an urgent issue.

Two of the Animal Demography Unit's Honorary Research Associates, Rob Crawford and Jean-Paul Roux, are co-authors of an important paper published in the leading journal Science today. It provides critical guidance on how fish stocks should be managed in such a way that there is enough left over for the seabirds.

"Fishing can have devastating effects on seabirds. Not only do they get snagged on hooks and tangled in nets, but chronic overfishing can deprive the birds of their prey—the same small fish that boats are catching. Now a study has identified what appears to be a universal threshold for danger: when the biomass of so-called forage fish drops below one-third of its maximum, seabirds of many species start to have fewer chicks.

"'This is one of the most important seabird papers to be published in some time,' comments conservation biologist Dee Boersma of the University of Washington, Seattle, who was not involved in the research. The findings demonstrate the widespread reliance of seabirds on small forage fish, she says. To protect the birds, the papers' authors call for lower harvest levels of forage fish. 'The problem remains that most fisheries are not properly managed and controlled,' says co-author Philippe Cury of the Institute of Research for Development in Sète, France. Worldwide, about 25% of forage fish stocks have collapsed, he adds.

These are the first two paragraphs of the report that appears on the website of the journal Science. Read the full report here.

The abstract of the paper reads like this: "Determining the form of key predator-prey relationships is critical for understanding marine ecosystem dynamics. Using a comprehensive global database, we quantified the effect of fluctuations in food abundance on seabird breeding success. We identified a threshold in prey (fish and krill, termed “forage fish”) abundance below which seabirds experience consistently reduced and more variable productivity. This response was common to all seven ecosystems and 14 bird species examined within the Atlantic, Pacific, and Southern Oceans. The threshold approximated one-third of the maximum prey biomass observed in long-term studies. This provides an indicator of the minimal forage fish biomass needed to sustain seabird productivity over the long term." The full reference is Cury PM, Boyd IL, Bonhommeau S, Anker-Nilssen T, Crawford RJM, Furness RW, Mills JA, Murphy EJ, Österblom H, Paleczny M, Piatt JF, Roux J-P, Shannon L.J, Sydeman WJ 2011. Global seabird response to forage fish depletion – one-third for the birds. Science 334: 1703–1706.

After a nice run of almost three months, it seems that Kathy's PTT has stopped transmitting. The update I posted on 9 December (for which the data came from 6 December) was the last transmission received from PTT 105338. Kathy was released at Betty's Bay on 13 September along with her sibling, dubbed Georgie. Unfortunately the PTT Georgie was carrying (105339) only transmitted for 12 days, but Kathy's sent updates on her whereabouts for just under three months. In that time she covered close to 2000 km but, unlike the three chicks that had gone before, she did not head into Namibia waters. Kathy spent most of her time on the West Coast of South Africa, between about 70 and 300 km north of St Helena Bay. She also didn't spend quite as much time far offshore as Lucy (105335 shown in red), Richie (105336, green) and Nicky (105337, yellow) did. Interestingly, we have been hearing from the scientists at the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) that this winter has been a relatively poor one for small pelagic fish recruitment and there were apparently very few youg sardine and anchovy found during the annual survey conducted in May. Could that explain why Lucy, Richie and Nicky all headed so far north? At present we can only guess but more deployments are planned for next winter, so perhaps we will be able to shed more light on that question in the future.

I hope to post a more complete summary of these deployments in the New Year, once we have started to undertake the data analysis. For now, just to say thanks again to everyone that helped to make sure the deployments happened, especially Bruce Dyer and Rob Crawford (Department of Environmental Affairs, DEA) for their help obtaining and deploying the PTTs as well as Mike Meyer (DEA) for tirelessly downloading the data every few days. The Chick Bolstering Project is a collaborative project and we are grateful to all the other partners and sponsors: SANCCOB, the Bristol Conservation and Science Foundation, the Animal, the Department of Environmental Affairs (Oceans and Coasts), CapeNature, Robben Island Museum and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). The project is made possible by the following sponsors: Zoo Basel; Zoo Leipzig; Living Coasts; Erlebnis Zoo Hannover; Dierenpark Amersfoort; Le Pal Nature Foundation; Allwetterzoo Muenster; ZOOM Torino; La Palmyre Zoo; Burgers Zoo; Georgia Aquarium; Leiden Conservation Foundation; National Aviary; Seaworld Animal Crisis Fund; Little Rock Zoo; Memphis Zoo; Steinhardt Aquarium; Toledo Zoo, Mystic Aquarium; Disney Rapid Relief Fund; Wallace Global Fund; Fort Wayne Kid’s Zoo; and Jenkinson’s Aquarium and Oceana.

You can find the background to this project here.

I guess, as should be expected by now, Kathy didn't do what I suggested that she might in the last post. She has moved back inshore and back north to the area of Brand se Baai and the border with the northern Cape. Clearly, something is keeping her in the area and we hope it is small pelagic fish.

You can find out more about this project here. Thanks to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible.

This year, MSc student Kate Robinson and postdoc Antje Steinfurth have been responsible for the GPS logger monitoring of African Penguins on Robben and Dassen Islands, respectively. We do this research in close collaboration with the Oceans & Coasts Branch of the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) and the Fisheries Branch of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF). The GPS loggers (which cost a scary R30 000 each) are bought by DEA, and the ADU helps by doing the deployments of the loggers on the penguins. This fieldwork requires enormous amounts of skill to attach the loggers, and then nerves of steel waiting for the penguins to return. A logger makes one trip on a penguin and then gets removed and the precious data downloaded. The data consists of accurate positions of the penguins at intervals of a few minutes, and detailed data about their dive behaviour.

Kate shares four of the 30 tracks she obtained of penguins from Robben Island: "The red track was made in May, the yellow in June and the green and the blue in July. The penguin with the red track made 430 dives during a 10 hour trip, and the yellow penguin made 349 dives in a 10.8 hour trip. The total length of the green track, the longest one, is 62 km. The penguin that made the blue track got into the sea at 07h15 on the morning of 13 July, at dawn, covered a total distance of 46 km, and got back to Robben Island at 18h00 that evening, at dusk. This is the typical one-day foraging trip of a penguin with chicks in the nest."

Antje made a similar number of deployments on Dassen Island. One of her birds was away for a long time, and when she ultimately got the logger back, she discovered that the bird had made a trip around Cape Point, almost as far as Hermanus!

We are steadily building up an understanding of where penguins feed when they have chicks, and ultimately we aim to get really good insights into where the penguins are feeding in relation to where the fish actually are. In simplified terms, the fish biology runs like this. During the main penguin breeding season, in winter, there is "river" of young anchovy swimming south along the West Coast and passing with penguin foraging range of the two islands. The fish are heading for the Agulhas Bank, where they spawn. We are aiming to do the monitoring on an annual basis, and we want to find out if the penguins are telling us whether they need to go longer and longer distances each year in search of food, and from the diving patterns we can estimate how hard they are working. This information all contributes to a much larger research programme which aims to discover the reasons for the decline in penguin population sizes, and to make recommendations for how to reverse it.

Kate and Antje are currently funded by the Marine Research Institute at UCT, by the Leiden Conservation Trust in the US, and by the National Research Foundation in Pretoria. We are grateful to these organisations for bursaries and we greatly value the support, through equipment and logistics, provided by CapeNature, Robben Island Museum, Earthwatch Institute, DEA and DAFF.

On 2 December 2011, Kathy was 90 km offshore of Lambert's Bay. She had continued south from her last position on 28 November and covered around 150 km to the south and south-west between the two updates. Kathy hasn't been as far offshore as that since 29 September, when she was 110 km offshore of the Western Cape-Northern Cape border. It will be interesting to see whether Kathy continues to travel in a south-westerly direction, in which case she may end up on the Cape Canyon (an area that the first three chicks crossed), or whether she will change direction and head into St. Helena Bay or back into Table Bay.

You can find out more about this project here. Thanks to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible.

Since I last managed to update on the 14th, Kathy has covered over 300 km first to the north and then back south. So, she is pretty much right back where she started 15 days ago. At first she moved north to a position about 40 km north of Hondeklip Bay and about 150 km south of the border with Namibia, before returning back south to the Groenrivier area. Mike Meyer, from the Department of Environmental Affairs, who downloads the data from the PTTs, has just returned from conducting a whale survey in the area. Although they didn't manage to spot Kathy, Mike says that they did see plenty of penguins at sea. He tells me that it is a strong upwelling area and that they found plenty of humpback whales about 4km offshore feeding on big plankton blooms. Some of the whale feeding groups were as large as 30-40 individuals. Mike says, given the plankton blooms, it is pretty likely that there were fish in the area and they saw a lot of Cape Fur Seals (looking pretty full) resting during the day. Let's hope Kathy is finding fish too!

You can find out more about this project here. Thanks to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible.

Still not much change in Kathy's location. She is still moving slowly northwards, but she has moved back inshore again. She covered about 30 km since 11 November and is still just over 140 km north-west of Lambert's Bay and 340 km north of Cape Town. The data for this update come from 14 November.

To read the background to this project, click here. To find out where the other chicks got to before their transmitters failed, click here and scroll down through the previous latest news entries. Thanks to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible.

Kathy is still moving slowly northwards, but she has once again headed offshore, following a track very similar to the one she took at the beginning of October. She covered about 50 km between 6 November and yesterday (10 November) and was sitting about 20 km offshore and 140 km north-west of Lambert's Bay.

Look out for the Chick Bolserting Project on 50/50 this coming Monday (14 November) at 19h30 on SABC 2. You can find out more about this project here. Thanks to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible.

 A few weeks ago members of the Chick Bolstering Project team were filmed by a crew from SABC's regular conservation show 50/50. The TV cameras captured the research team deploying the last two PTTs, Kathy and Georgie's first few moments in the pool at SANCCOB and their release back into the cold Benguela waters at Betty's Bay. The episode is scheduled to air on Monday (14 November) at 19h30 on SABC 2.

Kathy has moved a little further north (about 20 km) and is once again just over the border with the Northern Cape. Hopefully she is still finding food in the area. Kathy has now covered over 1000 km from her release point at Betty's Bay but, as she has been moving up and down the West Coast, she hasn't been more that about 350 km north of Cape Town at any point. The positions for this update come from 6 November.

You can find out more about this project here. Thanks to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible.

Once again, Kathy hasn't moved far. She is just 11 km north-west of her position on 29 October and around 10 km offshore of the Namaqua Sands mine at Brand-se-Baai in the Western Cape. Again, her latest movements suggest that she was foraging in the area.

You can find out more about this project here. Thanks to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible.

Unfortunately neither PTT 105336 or 105337, those being carried by Richie and Nicky, have transmitted since 25 October. The PTTs have now missed two transmission cycles (27th and 29th) and given that they had been transmitting for 102 and 95 days respectively on the 25th, it seems pretty likely that either the devices have fallen off or the batteries have failed. Studies that have attached similar devices to penguins in the past (using the same methods) have reported transmission lives of between 15 and 142 days, so these two were well within the normal range. The good news is that Kathy's PTT is still transmitting, but she hasn't moved far. On 29 October she was just offshore of the Western Cape, about 10 km north-west of her previous position and 20 km south of the Northern Cape border. The latest positions seem to suggest that she was foraging in the area.

You can find out more about this project here. Thanks as always to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible and Mike Meyer (Oceans and Coasts) for his efforts to download the Argos data. Mike is currently away without internet access, so updates may be a little more sporadic than usual for the time being. My apologies in advance.

Richie (green) has moved just 25 km to the north-west since the 19th. On 25 October 2011, he was 13 km north-west of Mile 108 on Namibia's Skeleton Coast. He is still about 500 km south of the Angolan border. Nicky (yellow) was about 50 km offshore of Swakopmund on 19 October and has continued heading out to sea. Yesterday morning, she was just over 100 km offshore of the city, hopefully finding something to eat out there.

Back in South Africa, Kathy (blue) wins this week's award for distance covered. She has travelled about 100 km since the 19th. Initially she moved back south again along the coastline to a point 10 km north of Lambert's Bay, before heading quickly north to a point 50 km north-west of Doring Bay and 35 km shy of the Northern Cape border. The area south of Lambert's Bay (the St. Helena Bay area) is thought to be an important nursery ground for small pelagic fish. Hopefully the fact that Kathy has been staying around this area in recent weeks means that she is finding prey.

You can find out more about this project here. Thanks are due, as always, to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible and Mike Meyer (Oceans and Coasts) for his efforts to download the Argos data. Mike is going to be away from internet access for much of the next two weeks, so updates may be a little more sporadic than usual for that time. My apologies in advance.

Mike Meyer, who downloads the Argos data through the Department of Environmental Affairs account and forwards it on to me, is going to be away from internet access for much of the next two weeks, so updates may only be sporadic. Our apologies in advance.

It seems that north is the way to go once again. Between the last update, on the 13th, and the latest update, which comes from 19 October, all three of the chicks still transmitting have moved to the north of their previous positions. Just some a little more than others.

Richie (green) has, for the first time, moved a considerable distance north of Swakopmund. He was 30 km north-west of Cape Cross and around 12 km offshore on the 19th. This puts him about 150 km north-west of Swakopmund, almost 600 km north-west of Luderitz and about 1400 km from the site of his release in Table Bay. He is now also just slightly further north than Lucy was when her device stopped transmitting on 23 July. Nicky (yellow), who was down in the mouth of Sandwich Harbour on 13 October, covered about 100 km in the six days between updates and was once again close to Swakopmund. She was about 50 km offshore of the city on 19 October. The last few positions that the PTT attached to Nicky sent on the 19th suggest that she may be turning back towards the south, but we will have to wait and see.

Kathy (blue) continued to move back south along the coastline of the Western Cape since the 13th, reaching a point about 5 km south of Lambert's Bay, before heading directly offshore for about 15 km. She then turned back to the north-east and returned to within a few kilometres of shore, 5 km south of Doring Bay. Between 13 and 19 October, she covered around 80 km but ended up just a couple of kilometres from where she started. Hopefully, this means she is finding food in the area.

To find out more about this project, click here. As always, we would like to thank all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible and Mike Meyer (Oceans and Coasts) for his efforts to download the Argos data.

Again, my apologies for the delay in posting, but I have been suffering with computer issues.

Richie and Nicky are still pretty much where we left them on the 11th. Richie (green) was about 20 km north of Swakopmund on 13 October, while Nicky (yellow) was in the mouth of Sandwich Harbour, around 2 km offshore and west of Anichab.

Kathy (blue) continued to move back south along the coastline of the Western Cape. On 13 October she was just 2 km offshore, about 20km north-west of Lambert's Bay and 10 km south of Doring Bay. Hopefully another update will follow soon.

To find out more about this project, click here. As always, I would like to thank all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible and Mike Meyer (Oceans and Coasts) for his efforts to download the Argos data.

First of all, my apologies that nothing has been posted since 1 October. As I alluded to in my last post, I have been away from Cape Town without any internet access. Unfortunately, Les has been unable to post updates in my absence as the ADU had some server problems over the last week. Everything is sorted now and, as you have probably guessed, I am back at my desk. So, without further ado, an update!

Well, as far as Richie and Nicky are concerned, not a lot has changed in the 11 days that I was away. They are both still in central Namibia, working the area between Conception Bay and Swakopmund. Although it is getting pretty difficult to tell from the images, Richie (105336; green) was about 5 km south-west of Swakopmund on 11 October, just a few kilometres south of where he was on 29 September (the last update posted here). However, he hasn't just been hanging around, having worked his way down to Walvis Bay on 3 October, Sandwich Harbour on 7 October and back to Swakopmund by the morning of the 11th. Nicky (105337; yellow) has also been moving up and down that stretch of coastline. She was in Conception Bay on 29 September, north of Walvis Bay (near Swakopmund) on 3 October, just south of Sandwich Harbour on the 7th and was just north of Sandwich Harbour yesterday morning.

Down here in South Africa, Kathy (105338; blue) has made a u-turn, headed back inshore and back into the waters of the Western Cape. She was about 100 km offshore on 29 September, about 70 km offshore of the Northern Cape-Western Cape border on 3 October and just offshore of the Sout River Mouth (just inside the Northern Cape) on 7 October. The latest position shows that she was about 60 km north-west of Lambert's Bay and 260 km north of Cape Town yesterday morning. She was just north of Elephant rock (near Lutzville) and the positions or the 11th seems to suggest that there are some fish in the area.

To find out more about this project, click here. As always, we are grateful to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible and to Oceans and Coasts for their assistance acquiring the Argos data.

Although two updates have arrived from Mike Meyer since I last managed to post here, Richie and Nicky still haven't moved far. Richie is still north of Walvis Bay, around 60 km on 29 September, and Nicky is still around the Conception Bay area. Both birds are about 10 km offshore. Kathy, meanwhile, has moved 160 km since the 25th, first in a north-westerly direction into the waters of the Northern Cape and then, since the 27th, directly offshore to a distance of 110 km. Sadly, Georgie's PTT, 105339, had still not transmitted on the morning of 29 September, so we now don't expect to get data from that device again. Unfortunately, whilst we hope that it was just device failure or loss, we cannot rule out mortality at this stage and it is worrying to lose contact with the device so soon after the bird was released.

To find out more about this project, click here. As always, we are grateful to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible and to Oceans and Coasts for their assistance aquiring the Argos data.

I will be away from internet access until 12 October 2011. While I hope that Les will be able to update this page occassionally, it is possible that there will be no updates until then.

Something is definitely holding the interest of Richie and Nicky in central Namibia. On the morning of 25 September 2011, Richie was still close to Swakopmund in an almost identical spot to where he was on the 19th and Lucy had moved a little way south and is about 10 km offshore of Sandwich Harbour. Kathy has moved about 30 km to the north in the last two days and is about 8 km offshore, close to the Salt River mouth. PTT 105339, the one being carried by Georgie seems not to have transmitted on the morning of the 25 September, so there is no update on his position as yet. The devices should all have transmitted again this morning, so hopefully we will see positions again from Georgie soon.

To find out more about this project, click here. As always, we are grateful to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible and to Oceans and Coasts for their assistance aquiring the Argos data.

Richie (green) and Nicky (yellow) are still around the Walvis Bay/Swakopmund area. Richie has moved about 25 km north, to a position around 20 km north-west of Swakopmund. Lucy has covered around 100 km and moved north to a position approximately due west of Walvis Bay and 50 km south of Richie's position. Georgie (pink) and Kathy (blue) are still moving north. Both birds covered about 250 km between the 19 and the 23 September and have moved to positions due west of Vrendendal. Kathy is around 20 km offshore and Georgie is about 100 km offshore. They are both about 60 km south of the border between the Western and Northern Cape. Neither bird crossed the Cape Canyon.

To find out more about this project, click here. As always, we are grateful to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible and to Oceans and Coasts for their assistance aquiring the Argos data.

As you can see from the image above, the headline news is that Kathy and Georgie have changed direction, rounded Cape Point and are heading north. Kathy (blue) was already in Table Bay on the morning of 19 September, about 50 km north-west of Cape Town. Georgie (pink) has taken a more offshore path and was around about 50 km due west of Camps Bay on the 19th. Both birds have covered over 150 km since being released last week Tuesday (13 September). Based on the paths taken by the last three chicks, my guess is that these birds will move on to the Cape Canyon (the area of shadows in the top left of the image) and continue heading north. However, if we have learnt anything from these penguins so far, it is definitely to not make any assumptions. The PTTs should have transmitted again this morning, so hopefully the wait will not be too long to see where Kathy and Georgie have gone.

Up in central Namibia, Richie (green) is still around the Walvis Bay area, although he has moved about 20 km further north and is now just south-west of Swakopmund. Nicky (yellow) has continued south and has now moved back past Sandwich Harbour and back towards Conception Bay. So, once again, these two are separated by over 100 km. Let's hope it is the presence of sardine and anchovy that is keeping the attention of these two birds focused on central Namibia.

To find out more about this project, click here. As always, we are grateful to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible and to Mike Meyer (Oceans and Coasts) for his ongoing efforts with downloading the Argos data.

Kathy and Georgie were released as planned on Tuesday morning (13 September) and the update from the early hours of 15 September showed that they were both heading east away from Betty's Bay. Kathy's track (105338) is shown in blue in the image below, Georgie's (105339) is shown in pink and I have marked Betty's Bay in the top left of the image. Kathy was around 6 km offshore of Botriver mouth on the 15th and Georgie was around 35 km offshore of Danger Point after about 20 hours at sea. The PTTs should have transmitted again early yesterday morning (17th), so hopefully the wait to see if they continue to head east won't be too long.

Richie and Nicky meanwhile are still in central Namibia. Both birds are around Walvis Bay and just a couple of kilometres offshore. Nicky (yellow) had moved a little way south from her position on the 11th and Richie (green) continued a little way north so the two are just a few kilometres apart again.

To find out more about this project, click here. As always, we are grateful to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible and to Mike Meyer (Oceans and Coasts) for his ongoing efforts with downloading the Argos data.

Richie, it seems, cannot decide which way he wants to go. He has turned around yet again and is now heading back north towards Conception Bay, the bay just visible at the top of the left-hand image. He is now 40 km north of his position on 9 September and about 50 km north of Hollam's Bird Island (the dark blue spot near the bottom of the image). Nicky is still moving northwards. She is about 80 km north of her last position and is now in Walvis Bay, about 20 km north of the town and 10 km south of Swakopmund. She is now only around 150 km south of the last position received from the PTT deployed on Lucy, but much closer to shore. Although the yellow track shown in the image above implies that Nicky walked to Walvis Bay, this is just Google Earth joining up the positions from 9 September and 11 September by the shortest possible route. Although penguins don't breed as far north as Walvis Bay, several species of seabird breed on the Bird Rock Guano Platform, notably Great White Pelicans.

Kathy and Georgie are scheduled to be released today at Betty's Bay, but the weather may not play along. I will post more information as and when I get it.

To find out more about this project, click here. As always, we are grateful to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible and to Mike Meyer (Oceans and Coasts) for his ongoing efforts with downloading the Argos data.

In the early hours of 9 September, Richie (green) was just offshore opposite Hollam's Bird Island, having moved about 100 km south from Conception Bay since 5 September. This bird has turned around twice already, so we will have to wait a while to see if he is heading back towards South Africa. Nicky (yellow) meanwhile, moved about 50 km north of her last position in Conception Bay and is now just 15 km south of the lagoon at Sandwich Harbour. Richie and Nicky have now been at sea with the PTTs attached for 52 and 45 days respectively.

The final two chicks selected for tracking this year had their PTTs attached at SANCCOB on Friday. Once again Bruce Dyer (Oceans and Coasts) joined me for the deployment and we attached both devices on the same day. The chicks, selected by Dr Nola Parsons, are siblings removed from Robben Island earlier in the breeding season. Dubbed Kathy and Georgie, the birds passed all of SANCCOB's standard release tests, including blood, weight and waterproofing evaluation and weighted 2950 g and 3200 g respectively on Friday. As before, the chicks were given the opportunity to swim with the device almost immediately after they were attached (see below) and they will remain at SANCCOB until Tuesday where they will be monitored and have plenty of chances to adjust to swimming with the PTT. Georgie and Kathy will be released at Betty's Bay on Tuesday, if all goes according to plan.

For more information on this project, click here. As always, we are grateful to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible.

Last weekend, ADU postdoc Richard Sherley reported on the Latest News that the Seli One, the ship that wrecked two winters ago in Table Bay, was leaking, and asked everyone to be on the look out for oiled penguins.

We had an Earthwatch team on Robben Island at the time. The Earthwatch Institute is an NGO which sends volunteers to assist with a large variety of projects all over the world. Our "South African Penguins"project on Robben Island started in 2001, so this has been its 11th year. Besides Earthwatch, the project has been a partnership between the the University of Bristol, the ADU at UCT, the Oceans & Coasts Branch of the Department of Environmental Affairs, and the Robben Island Museum. The dates for the 2012 teams, and all the relevant information, are on the Earthwatch website

The leader of the team on Robben Island last week was Peter Barham, Professor of Physics at Bristol University and ADU Honorary Research Associate. Peter and the team of volunteers conducted a diligent search along the entire coastline of the island, and found a total of three oiled penguins, all standing just above the high tide level. Fortunately, this appears to be the total number of penguins impacted by this incident.

Catching individual penguins on the shore represents a huge challenge. If you approach them from the land side, the oiled penguins evade capture by escaping into the sea. Once a penguin, even an oiled penguin, is swimming, there is no possibility whatsoever of capturing it. So it is essential to have someone who emerges out of the sea, so the penguin stays on the land. On Wednesday, Richard Sherley went to join the team. He donned his wetsuit, went into the sea some 100 m from the target bird, and made his way carefully along the shore until he was opposite the penguin – as demonstrated in the top picture.

The result was a 3/3 success rate. The bottom picture shows Richard bringing a very badly oiled penguin under control. This was the third and final oily. The three penguins put in a penguin box, and were delivered to SANCCOB late on Wednesday afternoon. There they will be cleaned and rehabilitated, and once their plumage is waterproof again, in about two-three weeks, they will be released.

Over the 11 years, the teams of Earthwatch have gathered an incredibly valuable dataset providing, among a host of other things, annual measures of the breeding success of African Penguins. At the start of the project, penguin populations were on the increase, from about the middle of the project, they have been decreasing rapidly, so that the conservation status was changed from "Vulnerable" to "Endangered" last year. The

Nicky and Richie were only 16 km apart on Monday (5 September), when we got the last update. Once again, neither bird had moved far. Richie was about 15 km north of Conception Bay and Nicky appeared to be feeding in the Bay.

Meanwhile, at SANCCOB, the final two PTTs were put on to the last two chicks of the year today (9 September). More information on this, and on Richie and Nicky, will hopefully follow on Sunday.

For more information on this project, click here. As always, we are grateful to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible.

BREAKING NEWS: According to Eyewitness News, the Seli One, the ship stranded just off of the beach at Bloubergstrand is leaking oil following the recent bad weather. Please keep a look out for oiled seabirds and contact SANCCOB (021 557 6155) A.S.A.P. if you find any.

Not a lot has changed since the last update from 28 August. Nicky (105337) is still close to Hollam's Bird Island and Richie (105336) was still just south of Conception Bay in the early hours of yesterday morning (1 September 2011). Mike Meyer, from the Department of the Environment, tells me that the Conception Bay area is known from satellite tagging studies to be an important area for seals. He says "Seals form haulout areas along the shore at Conception Bay. The size of these haulout areas depend on the number of pelagic fish in the area. Many seals move to this area from colonies such as Wolf and Atlas Bay to feed. It would appear the penguins are also feeding in the same area".

For more information on this project, click here. As always, we are grateful to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible.

A new study published last month in the Journal of Experimental Biology has shed some light on the mechanisms that penguins use to find food at sea. The authors, Kyran Wright, Lorien Pichegru and Peter Ryan, are from the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cape Town. The abstract of the paper is below and a copy of the pdf full text can be obtained from Lorien Pichegru or online with subscription to the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Abstract: Breeding Spheniscus penguins are central place foragers that feed primarily on schooling pelagic fish. They are visual hunters, but it is unclear how they locate prey patches on a coarse scale. Many petrels and storm petrels (Procellariiformes), the penguins' closest relatives, use olfactory cues to locate prey concentrations at sea, but this has not been demonstrated for penguins. Procellariiforms are attracted to a variety of olfactory cues, including dimethyl sulphide (DMS), an organosulphur compound released when phytoplankton is grazed, as well as fish odorants such as cod liver oil. A recent study found that African penguins Spheniscus demersus react to DMS on land. We confirm this result and show that African penguins are also attracted by DMS at sea. DMS-scented oil slicks attracted 2–3 times more penguins than control slicks, whereas penguins showed no response to slicks containing cod liver oil. The number of penguins attracted to DMS increased for at least 30 min, suggesting penguins could travel up to 2 km to reach scent cues. Repeats of land-based trials confirmed previous results showing DMS sensitivity of penguins on land. Our results also support the hypothesis that African penguins use DMS as an olfactory cue to locate prey patches at sea from a distance, which is particularly important given their slow commuting speed relative to that of flying seabirds.

Reference: Wright KLB, Pichegru L and Ryan PG 2011. Penguins are attracted to dimethyl sulphide at sea. Journal of Experimental Biology 214: 2509–2511.

SANCCOB held its Annual General Meeting at the Lagoon Beach Hotel on Monday 22 August 2011 and announced the official launch of the Burghers Walk Restoration Project. This is a partnership between the City of Cape Town and SANParks (South African National Parks), which has at its heart the conservation of African Penguins nesting in the public open space adjacent to the Boulders Beach colony. The birds here are unprotected and stand the risk of being disturbed by tourists, predated upon by domestic dogs and cats and of being run down by vehicles. SANCCOB is the official fundraiser for the project.

One of the key actions identified during the Biodiversity Management Plan meeting was that we need to take to ensure the survival of the African Penguin is securing protected status for all the existing breeding colonies. The announcement of the Burghers Walk Restoration Project is great news and a terrific step in the right direction for the conservation of the African Penguin.

Visit the latest news section on the SANCCOB website to find out more.

The latest update arrived last night from the ARGOS satellite via Mike Meyer. It shows the bird's positions early in the morning of 28 August. Nicky (yellow) had covered about 70 km since 24 August and was about 10 km north of Hollam's Bird Island. Richie (green) has moved ahead again and was around 50 km further north than Nicky, having covered about 110 km in the four days between the updates. He was just south of Conception Bay, approximately 120 km south of Walvis Bay and only about 300 km south of the last position we received from the PTT attached to Lucy. All three birds equipped so far have now spent at least some time beyond the northern extremity of the African Penguin's breeding range, which extends as far as Hollam's Bird Island.

For more information on this project, click here. As always, we are grateful to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible.

Nicky (yellow) and Richie (green) were just 16 km apart at 04h00 on the morning of 24 August 2011. The birds were both about 20 km offshore of St. Francis Bay, around 80 km north of Mercury Island and 50 km south-west of Hollam's Bird Island. Nicky covered another 120 km to the north in the two days since the last update (22 August), while Richie has moved just 10 km out to sea in a westerly direction. Richie's movements (or rather the lack of them), suggest that he may be feeding in the area. Hopefully, Nicky is finding food there too.

For more information on this project, click here. Thanks to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible and to Mike Meyer for downloading the ARGOS data.

Richie has turned around and is once again heading north. In the early hours of yesterday morning (22 August), he was 80 km north of Mercury Island, around about 1 km offshore and 50 km south-west of Hollam's Bird Island, the most northerly breeding colony in the African Penguin's range. He has now swam over 1200 km in the 35 days he has been at sea and is over 1000 km north of Robben Island, where he was released.

At the last update, Nicky was 125 km south of Luderitz and was approaching the major seabird islands of Namibia. She was around 50 km south of Sinclair Island and looked like she might be about to head out to sea. Early yesterday morning, Nicky was 60 km north-west of Luderitz and 20 km north-west of Ichaboe Island, having continued on her northward path. Ichaboe is one of Namibia's most important seabird colonies. It is home to the country's second largest African Penguin colony, the world's second largest colony of the Endangered Bank Cormorant and Namibia's largest colony of the Vulnerable Cape Gannet. Nicky covered close to 240 km in the five days since the last update (about 48 km/day) and was only 50 km south of Mercury Island and 130 km south of Richie's position.

Further information on this project can be found here. Thanks to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible and to Mike Meyer for downloading the ARGOS data.

The latest update shows that neither bird has moved very far over the intervening two days and that Richie was heading back south. He had moved around 16 km since 16 August and has turned back, so that he was around 5 km west of Mercury Island in the early hours of 18 August. Nicky was around 50 km north-west of her position from 16 August and had covered about 65 km. She was about 15 km offshore and around 50 km south of Sinclair Island, the southernmost important seabird island in Namibia. The few positions that we received from Nicky's PTT on Thursday morning suggest that she may be heading further out to sea, but we'll have to wait for the next update to find out.

The image below puts all three bird's journeys so far into the perspective of southern Africa. Between them, the three birds have swam around 3500 km. That is roughly the straight line distance from Cape Town to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and about 2.5 times the distance from Cape Town to Johannesburg. As before, Lucy's track is shown in red, Richie's in shown in green and Nicky's is in yellow.

Further information on this project can be found here. Thanks to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible and to Mike Meyer for downloading the ARGOS data.

The positions from early yesterday morning (16 August 2011) arrived in my inbox overnight and the headline story is that Nicky is now in Namibian waters too. On 12 August, when the last positions dated from, she was just south-west of Kleinzee town and had just over 160 km to travel if she was going to cross the border at the Orange River Mouth. This she achieved with ease, swimming a little over 200 km in the last four days. Early yesterday morning, she was approximately 50 km north-west of Alexander Bay, just over 10 km offshore and still heading north-west. The image below shows her track so far (in yellow) in relation to the paths taken by Richie (in green) and Lucy (in red). She has taken a very similar path to Richie so far, mainly sticking close to shore.

In total, Nicky has covered at least 800 km in the 21 days she has been at sea at an average speed of 38 km/day. Richie has also been moving at about the same speed. On 16 August, he had covered around 1100 km in the 28 days that he had been at sea at around 39 km/day. Early on, it looked like he was set to make it to Namibia in a shorter space of time than Lucy took, but he has slowed down considerably. So, the average speed record still goes to Lucy, who covered 1600 km in 27 days (59 km/day) before the PTT she was carrying stopped transmitting.

Richie has covered another 160 km since the last update and he was just offshore yesterday morning, about 10 km north of Mercury Island and over 100 km north of Luderitz. Several of the last few positions from yesterday morning suggest that Richie made landfall on the Namibian coastline, but the accuracy level reported by the PTT for these points was low and it seems likely that Richie was just foraging very close to shore. In comparison, Lucy, whose track (in red) can just be seen in the image below, travelled past Mercury Island almost 50 km offshore.

Further information on this project can be found here. Thanks to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible and to Mike Meyer for downloading the ARGOS data.

The latest positions received, from 12 August, show that Richie has made it to Namibia. On Friday morning, he was around 20 km south-west of Possession Island and about 50 km south of Luderitz. He has moved around 280 km since the last update on 8 August and was approximately 820 km north-west of the release site in Table Bay. Nicky, meanwhile, has moved about 140 km north, but was still in the Northern Cape, 33 km south-west of Kleinzee town. She was about 450 km from the release site and has around 160 km to travel before she reaches the Namibian border. Both birds seem to have been following the coastline in a broadly north-westerly direction in the last few days. As usual, Richie's path is shown in green in these images and Nicky's path is shown in yellow. The path Lucy took is shown in red.

The full account and detailed background to these deployments can be found here here. As always, we are grateful to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible.

Since the last positions on 4 August, Richie has moved around 70 km to the north, towards the border with Namibia. He is approximately 40 km north-west of Port Nolloth and 60 km shy of Alexander Bay and the Orange River mouth. Nicky has moved east by about 30 km and is still just over the Western Cape-Northern Cape border, around 10 km offshore and 35 km north-west of the mouth of the Olifants River.

The full account and detailed background to these deployments can be found here here. As always, we are grateful to all the partners and sponsors of the Chick Bolstering Project for making this research possible.

The early hours of 4 August found Richie still close to shore in the waters of the Northern Cape, but now Nicky has joined him there too. Richie has moved about 60 km north from his last position (31 July 2011) and was about 40 km offshore of Kleinzee yesterday morning. Nicky, meanwhile, has moved around 160 km since the last update, mainly in a north-easterly direction, and she is now much close to shore. Her last position, at around 04h00 on 4 August, put her around 30 km offshore and just north of the border with the Northern Cape. She is also catching up to Richie.

The full account and detailed background to these deployments can be found here here. The Chick Bolstering Project is a collaboration between numerous partners and we are grateful to all the partners and sponsors for making this project possible.

Since I managed to post the last update, Nicky has in fact turned to the north and is now following a similar route to Lucy and Richie. In the early hours of the morning of 31 July, she was around 160 km offshore of St. Helena Bay and Lamberts Bay. Richie is also still heading north, but has only covered around 130 km since 27 July. He is now in coastal waters, around 30 km offshore of Koinaas mine and the positions for 29 and 31 July (shown in the image below) suggest he has been feeding there.

Once again, Richie's track is shown in green in the images above, Nicky's is in yellow and Lucy's in red. Unfortunately, we have still had no signals from 105335 (Lucy's PTT). Given that Lucy was still moving long distances right up to the last update we received, I think it is most likely that the PTT has fallen off or failed earlier than expected.

The full account and detailed background to these deployments can be found here here. The Chick Bolstering Project is a collaboration between numerous partners and we are grateful to all the partners and sponsors for making this project possible.

The update received early yesterday morning showed Richie still heading north, although much closer inshore than he was, and gave the suggestion that Nicky might be heading south towards Cape Point. Richie was about 50 km offshore, just north of the Spoeg river and he has now covered around 430 km since being released. Nicky was released from a boat in Table Bay on Tuesday afternoon (26 July) and had moved around 30 km to the west by the early hours of the next morning, when the first signals were received from the PTT on her back. Richie's track is shown in green in the image above, Nicky's is in yellow and Lucy's in red. Unfortunately, PTT 105335, the one being carried by Lucy, has not transmitted since Saturday 23 July. If we do receive another update on her position, we will post it here.

The full account and detailed background to these deployments can be found here here. The Chick Bolstering Project is a collaboration between numerous partners and we are grateful to all the partners and sponsors for making this project possible.

We received the above image over the weekend. It shows Richie the penguin moments after he was released in Table Bay on Tuesday 19 July 2011. Thanks to SANCCOB and photographer Cheryl-Samantha Owen for allowing us to use it here.

Lucy the penguin continues to head in a northly direction along the Namibian coast. In the early hours of the morning on 23 July, Lucy was 130 km west of Cape Cross and only 500 km from the border between Angola and Namibia. Richie is also moving parallel to the coast, in a north-westerly direction and is following a similar path to the path Lucy took in the waters of the Western Cape. On 23 July, he was around 170 km north-west of Velddrif and about 145 km offshore. So far, since he was released last week Tuesday, he has covered around 260 km.

The third chick to be equipped with its PTT, Nicky, is expected to be released tomorrow, if the weather stays good. We should see Nikcy's first positions at sea on Wednesday (27 July). The full account and detailed background to these deployments can be found here. The Chick Bolstering Project is a collaboration between numerous partners and we are grateful to all the partners and sponsors for making this project possible.

Late last night, Mike Meyer (Oceans and Coasts) downloaded the first positions from Richie, the second hand-reared chick to be released by SANCCOB (Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds) with a PTT attached to its back. In the early hours of yesterday morning, Richie was 40 km offshore of Saldanha Bay and had already moved around 110 km to the north and west. His path (in green) so far can be seen relative to Lucy's path (in red) in the image below. So far, he has moved a similar distance in his first day and a half at sea to what Lucy covered in her first two and a half days at sea. We will have to wait a while to see if he will follow Lucy into Namibian waters, but if he does, at this rate he should get there more quickly than she did.

Up in Namibia, Lucy continues relentlessly heading north. Since the update on 19 July 2011, she has covered another 150 km and continues to follow the orientation of the coastline in a north-westerly direction. She is also continuing to move back further offshore and was around 150 km from Walvis Bay yesterday morning. She has now travelled almost 1500 km, in just under a month since she was released. The image below puts her journey so far into the context of southern Africa.

Meanwhile, all the way back at SANCCOB, the third chick was equipped with its PTT this morning. This chick, Nicky, is Richie's sibling, so also originates from the Boulders Beach colony in Simon's Town. They were brought to SANCCOB after their nest was flooded in heavy rain earlier this year. In the wild, African penguin chicks usually hatch and fledge a few days apart, so they would not normally necessarily go to sea together for the first time. If all goes to plan, Nicky should be released close to Robben Island on Tuesday (26 July 2011), one month after Lucy started on her journey. Look out for more information on Nicky soon.

The full account and detailed background to these deployments can be found here here. The Chick Bolstering Project is a collaboration between numerous partners and we are grateful to all the partners and sponsors for making this project possible.

In the four days that have passed since the last update, which was from 15 July 2011 and which put her just offshore of Luderitz, Lucy the Penguin has moved nearly 300 km to the north. Six am this morning found Lucy around 100 km offshore of Conception Bay and only 170 km south-west of Walvis Bay. At 24 degrees, 9 minutes south, she has just past Hollamsbird Island, the most northerly breeding colony in the African Penguin's range.

In total, since she was released on 26 June, Lucy has now covered nearly 1300 km in 23 days -- an average of around 56 km per day. Lucy is the first ever juvenile African Penguin to be fitted with a satellite transmitter, but she was followed to sea today by Richie, the second hand-reared chick to be released by SANCCOB (Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds) with a PTT attached to its back. Richie was released from a boat off of Robben Island today so, all being well, we should see the first positions from him on 21 July. The full account and detailed explanation of the background to Lucy and Richie are available here and here respectively.

Once again, thank you to all the Chick Bolstering Project partners and sponsors for making this project possible and to Mike Meyer (Department of Environmental Affairs) for tirelessly downloading the data every other day.

Lucy is now northwest of Luderitz and about 40 km south-west of Ichaboe Island. This small island (6.5 ha) is home to Namibia's second largest African Penguin colony with around 750 pairs in 2007. ADU postdoc Katta Ludynia's prediction that Lucy wouldn't make landfall at Possession Island has proved correct, but Lucy has carried on straight past Halifax and Luderitz.

Lucy is the first ever juvenile African Penguin to be fitted with a satellite transmitter. This penguin was released by SANCCOB (Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds) on 26 June 2011 and has now been at sea for 21 days. Lucy had been hand-reared from hatching by SANCCOB. The full account and detailed explanation of the background to Lucy is available here.

The second penguin to be fitted with a PTT was deemed to be ready for deployment last week by SANCCOB (Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds) SANCCOB veterinarian Dr. Nola Parsons. The attachment took place on Friday 15 July at SANCCOB and was attended by a small group of local and international reporters. The deployment was again carried out by staff of the Oceans and Coastal branch of the Department of the Environment and the Animal Demography Unit. The attachment went smoothly and the bird will now remain at SANCCOB for a few days until it is released next week. More information will follow shortly. Detailed background information to this project is available here.

Lucy Penguin is now southwest of Possession Island. This 90-ha island is the largest of the islands along the coastline of Namibia, and is 40 km south of Lüderitz. Historically, it had a large breeding colony of African Penguins, but numbers have dwindled down to about 300 pairs. ADU postdoc Katta Ludynia says: "The African Penguin colony on Possession Island might be the next colony to go extinct. I would bet that Lucy continues to swim past Possession (as food seems very little around there) and might continue on to Halifax Island where numbers currently seem to be increasing slowly!"

Lucy is the first ever juvenile African Penguin to be fitted with a satellite transmitter. This penguin was released by SANCCOB (Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds) on 26 June 2011 and has now been at sea for 19 days. Lucy had been hand-reared from hatching by SANCCOB. This tracking exercise forms part of the research project of Richard Sherley, who is a postdoc within the Animal Demography Unit at UCT. The scope of Richard's research is the African Penguin from the time of fledging to when they start to breed some three or more years later, a period during which we know extremely little about the movements and behaviour of penguins, and the conservation problems they face. The full account and detailed explanation of the background to Lucy is available here.

The latest positions reveal that Lucy is now 90 km north of the Orange River and only 44 km from the Namibian coast. Richard Sherley says: "Lucy goes international."

Lucy is the first ever juvenile African Penguin to be fitted with a satellite transmitter. This penguin was released by SANCCOB (Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds) on 26 June 2011 and has now been at sea for 17 days. Lucy had been hand-reared from hatching by SANCCOB. This tracking exercise forms part of the research project of Richard Sherley, who is a postdoc within the Animal Demography Unit at UCT. The scope of Richard's research is the African Penguin from the time of fledging to when they start to breed some three or more years later, a period during which we know extremely little about the movements and behaviour of penguins, and the conservation problems they face. The full account and detailed explanation of the background to Lucy is available on the Penguin Watch website.

We received the download of Lucy Penguin's position and maps from Michael Meyer at Oceans and Coasts. ADU postdoc Richard Sherley comments: "In the 48 hours since the last position, Lucy travelled the 120 km that would have been needed to get her into Namibia, but a last minute change of mind (shown in the lower image) and direction means that she is still in South African waters. She has moved closer into shore, so is only around 100 km from the nearest part of the mainland and 150 km offshore of the Northern Cape. In total she has travelled about 700 km from the release site. She is currently sitting over an area of water about 200 m deep."

Lucy is the first ever juvenile African Penguin to be fitted with a satellite transmitter. This penguin was released by SANCCOB (Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds) on 26 June 2011 and has now been at sea for 15 days. Lucy had been hand-reared from hatching by SANCCOB. The full account and detailed explanation of the background to Lucy is available on the Penguin Watch website.

This map shows the position of Lucy Penguin at 03h30 this morning, Friday 8 July 2011. ADU postdoc Richard Sherley reports: "Lucy moved 177 km in the last 48 hours and is now about 200 km offshore and only 120 km shy of the Namibian border!"

Lucy is the first ever juvenile African Penguin to be fitted with a satellite transmitter. This penguin was released by SANCCOB (Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds) on 26 June 2011 and has now been at sea for 12 days. Lucy had been hand-reared from hatching by SANCCOB. The full account and detailed explanation of the background to Lucy is available on the Penguin Watch website.

Some of the critical gaps in our knowledge about African Penguins are these questions. Where do young birds go immediately after they fledge? Where do they first start feeding? How fast do they travel? What destination are they aiming for? This hand-reared penguin is testing our technology. This is the first of five planned deployments over the coming months and forms part of a collaborative project under the auspices of the Chick Bolstering Project, a broad collaboration of penguin partners. With luck and assuming the chick survives the hazards of its first period at sea, the transmitter is expected to relay the bird's position for about six months. Regular updates will be posted on this website. The results form an important component of the postdoc project of Richard Sherley, whose focus is the critical years in the life of an African Penguin from fledging to breeding.

After this phase of the project is evaluated, we hope ultimately to do similar deployments on naturally reared chicks. The deployment on Lucy was made by scientists from the Oceans and Coasts Branch of the Department of Environmental Affairs and the Animal Demography Unit, University of Cape Town.

Lucy is the natural successor to Peter, Pamela and Percy, who swam from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town 11 years ago in the aftermath of the Treasure oil spill. As a result of Phil Whittington's PhD thesis, we know that the return rate to breed of hand-reared chicks does not differ from that of naturally-reared chicks.