Penguin and Seabird Rangers
Photographs by © Dan Callister www.dancallister.com
SANCCOB collaborates with conservation authorities, such as CapeNature (CN), South African National Parks (SANParks), City of Cape Town (CoCT), and Robben Island Museum (RIM), as well as the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) to work toward the protection and restoration of the natural habitat essential for seabirds to survive and the marine ecosystem to function. Throughout the years, SANCCOB has worked with government and conservation authorities to implement several management programmes and projects to conserve the African Penguin and other seabird species.
SANCCOB supports ten Penguin and Seabird Rangers at five vital seabird colonies (Robben Island, Simon’s Town, Stony Point, Dassen Island and Bird Island in Algoa Bay). We are in the process of adding a second Penguin and Seabird Ranger to the team at Stony Point. These rangers play a critical role in seabird conservation by ensuring that the natural habitat of seabirds is protected. Daily monitoring and valuable data collection is an important role of the rangers and is used for scientific research. The rangers are the boots on the ground that are identifying and rescuing injured, oiled, or abandoned seabirds and eggs and transporting them to one of our two SANCCOB centres.
The skill, dedication and commitment of SANCCOB’s Penguin and Seabird Rangers have saved thousands of critically endangered African Penguins and other seabirds that would otherwise not have survived.
Robben Island Penguin and Seabird Ranger
Robben Island is situated in Table Bay and is recognised as a South African National Heritage Site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, based mainly on cultural heritage. It is also protected environmentally by the South African government and managed by Robben Island Museum, while it is also recognised as an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) by BirdLife as well as a global Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) by IUCN. The island falls within the Robben Island marine protected area (MPA) of 580 km (proclaimed in 2019).
The Island has the longest standing monitoring of African Penguins’ breeding success which was started after the MV Treasure oil spill in the year 2000 to evaluate how oiled and rehabilitated birds cope in the wild. Robben Island is home to the critically endangered African Penguin, endangered Bank and Cape Cormorant, the endemic Hartlaubs gull and other TOPs marine protected seabird species like the Swift Tern.
Yandisa Cwecwe has been on Robben Island since the beginning of 2024. An average day for Yandisa includes morning field patrols to check for injured, sick, oiled or abandoned seabirds, these individuals are rescued and stabilised on the island, and Yandisa will then coordinate to safely have these birds transported by ferry to the mainland, where they will be taken to SANCCOB for rehabilitation, before being released back into the wild. She also conducts penguin moult counts, and other flying seabird censuses. Protecting wildlife breeding habitats and reporting negative incidents to Robben Island Museum Environmental Management Unit is all part of her routine work. She also assists with conducting Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) insertion in African Penguins. During the breeding season, she monitors the penguin nests for eggs or chicks to ensure the chicks are not underweight or that they are not abandoned.
Photographs by © Dan Callister www.dancallister.com
Stony Point Penguin and Seabird Ranger
Stony Point Nature Reserve is situated in the coastal town of Betty’s Bay in the Overberg and lies on an old whaling station site. During 2023 it was home to approximately 1,200 breeding pairs of African Penguins. Also present in the colony are four species of Cormorant; the Cape and Bank Cormorant (Endangered), Crowned Cormorant (Least Concern) and the White-breasted cormorant (Least concern), all of which breed on the outer rocks. The nature reserve is protected environmentally by the South African government and is managed by CapeNature. It falls within the 21 km Betty’s Bay MPA (3 km long, extending 3.6 km out to sea), and forms part of the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve.
Threats to seabirds breeding at this colony include the dramatic decrease in the pelagic fish stocks, predation on seabirds, such as mongoose, caracal and seals, as well as domestic dogs and cats, human-induced disturbance and activity, extreme weather events (heavy rains, flooding and heat stress), and chronic pollution by crude oil or other pollutants. SANCCOB identified the importance of a full-time Penguin and Seabird Ranger at Stony Point due to the frequency of African Penguin chick abandonment incidents, both during extreme weather events and when African Penguin parents start moulting while still rearing chicks.
Gavin Petersen has been working as a Penguin and Seabird Ranger at the Stony Point colony since 2019, in collaboration with CapeNature. He was awarded the very honourable BirdLife South Africa Owl award in 2021 due to his “inspiring example of how dedicated field rangers can promote the conservation of critically endangered seabirds”
In 2025, a second Penguin and Seabird ranger will join the team at Stony Point, providing more support and boots on the ground to ensure the ongoing monitoring, data collection and rescues are conducted.
Dassen Island Penguin and Seabird Ranger
The Dassen Island Nature Reserve was established as a provincial nature reserve in 1998 and is South Africa’s second largest coastal island and is also a Ramsar site.
It lies 9km from the mainland between Saldanha Bay and Cape Town. Home to a variety of seabirds, the most important resident is the Critically Endangered African Penguin, Dassen Island holds the largest population of breeding pairs of African Penguins globally, making this location critical for the placement of a Penguin and Seabird Ranger. Additional seabirds of importance that reside on the island are the endangered Bank and Cape Cormorant, African Black Oystercatchers, and both Crowned and White Breasted Cormorants. Dassen Island is also only one of two sites in South Africa that support breeding Great White Pelicans and Leaches Storm Petrels although in small numbers Dassen Island first received a Penguin and Seabird Ranger at the start of 2023. Leigh Liedeman is based on Dassen Island full time, his responsibilities are to monitor for any injured, ill, oiled or abandoned seabirds that he finds on his routine patrols of the island. Leigh ensures that regular monitoring that is required on the island is conducted according to the seasons, this ranges from moult counts, breeding success to chick conditioning, he also conducts other seabird counts, and monitors for any active predation taking place. Other threats directly affecting seabirds include competition with commercial fisheries for food resources, oil and other hazardous and noxious substances at sea or washing up on the island. African Penguins are particularly susceptible to oiling events and a single oil disaster can severely affect populations, this again highlights the valuable placement of Leigh as the Penguin and Seabird Ranger on Dassen Island.
Photographs by © Dan Callister www.dancallister.com
Simon’s Town Penguin and Seabird Rangers
The Simon’s Town colony is protected environmentally by the South African government with certain areas managed by SANParks and others by the City of Cape Town (CoCT). Simon’s Town is found 35 km south of Cape Town and the 2-ha protected site consists of small beaches.
It is recognized as an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) by BirdLife as well as a global Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) by IUCN.
Threats to the African Penguins include predation by mongoose, otter, caracal seals and sharks, as well as domestic dogs and cats. As one of two land-based colonies it also faces challenges of human induced disturbance and extreme weather events.
The Simon’s Town Penguin and Seabird Ranger Project has been running since 2016, as a partnership between CoCT, SANParks, SANCCOB, and Nature Connect. Currently, the Penguin and Seabird Rangers are supervised by Mashudu Mashau who is employed by CoCT, the Penguin and Seabird Ranger team is made up of: Mikaela Slier, Vardaman Hahndiek, Kashiefa Amos, Angelo Hufke and Philile Duze. This team are a force to be reckoned with and are vital to the protection of this colony. With weekly routines involving nest checks, breeding success, ongoing monitoring, and identifying of weak, ill, injured, oiled or abandoned seabirds and eggs, these individuals are safely rescued and transported through to SANCCOB for rehabilitation and eventual release back into the wild. Educating members of the public to be responsible tourists is key at this site, and the Penguin and Seabird rangers are instrumental in this work.
Bird Island Penguin and Seabird Rangers
Bird and St Croix islands are protected environmentally by the South African government and managed by SANParks as part of the Greater Addo Elephant National Park. The group of islands in Algoa Bay are together recognised as an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) by BirdLife, as well as a global Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) by IUCN and fall within the 1,200 km2 Addo Elephant MPA. 1,200 km2 (proclaimed in 2019).
The Algoa Bay islands together host the largest global populations of Cape Gannets classified as endangered on Bird Island.
Threats to these seabird populations are similar to the other island colonies, such as predation, lack of food and entanglement, but with the additional human-related disturbance with an increase in ship traffic associated with the nearby Port of Ngqura, as well as increased risk of oil pollution threats relating to ship-to-ship fuel bunkering permitted in the bay. SANCCOB has responded to four oil spills in recent years (2016, 2019, 2021 and 2022) caused by this high-risk activity.
Due to Bird and St Croix islands facing a high risk of oil spills due to the volume of ship-to-ship bunkering in the area, it is essential to have Penguin and Seabird Rangers stationed on Bird Island. The first SANCCOB Penguin and Seabird Ranger was employed to support SANParks in 2021, and 2023 a second SANCCOB ranger joined the team. Zamo Lazola and Mpumelelo Mabutyana, are based on Bird Island and play a critical role in seabird conservation, they also assist SANParks with monitoring St Croix Island, which is uninhabited.
The SANCCOB Penguin and Seabird Rangers conduct twice daily perimeter patrols of the island, allowing for monitoring of seabirds that are coming ashore from a day of foraging. The monitoring enables the rangers to evaluate potential threats (such as predators, oil slicks or extreme weather) to the seabirds and to identify any seabirds that may need to be rescued. The rangers play a crucial role in rescuing and stabilising seabirds on the islands prior to being sent off to SANCCOB Gqeberha, as transportation of birds off the Island can be challenging.
Stony Point Seabird Project
African penguins occur mostly on islands along the coast; however, there are two mainland breeding colonies in South Africa – Stony Point in Betty’s Bay and Boulders in Simon’s Town in the Cape Town Metro. Of these, the African penguin colony at Stony Point is the only colony that has been showing an increase in the last decade, and currently supports 10% of the global African penguin population.
Protecting and managing this colony is therefore vital to the survival of the species. Saving the African penguin also means the continuation of important opportunities for income generation as Stony Point has become a popular tourist destination. Listen to Dr Lauren Waller who describes what SANCCOB is doing in partnership with CapeNature at Stony Point.