Penguins jump around the waterline of Betty’s Bay in South Africa, calling to one another with short, harsh barks as the ocean swells over the rocky shore.
As they stumble around, they are adorably funny, but Alistair McInnes is alarmed.
This one is really narrow near the ocean. As you can see, it is not very fat.
Dr. McInnes works with BirdLife South Africa as a seabird conservationist and is a member of the team that monitors the declining penguin populations in the nation.
Over the past century, the African penguin, which is indigenous to Namibia and South Africa, has had a 99% decline in population.
Dr. McInnes cautions that “the situation is extremely urgent if the current rates of decline persist into the near future. We could see the extinction of the species within our lifetime by 2035.”
