20181016_BB

Source: BBC News

URL: N/A

Date: 16/10/2018

Event: African penguin habitat "hit by rising tides caused by climate change"

Credit: BBC News, also many thanks to Paul Homewood at https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/ for transcribing this (first posted here).

People:

• Eliza Philippidis: BBC Reporter
• Faroeshka Rodgers: Section Ranger from Simon’s Town

BBC Presenter: The next report is about the African penguin population and how it’s rapidly declining. Conservationists are saying their habitat is being hit by rising tides caused by climate change. And it’s interesting that since that report by the UN last week on climate change, so many different organisations have been coming forward to emphasise the importance it has on their work.

Eliza Philippidis [reporting from South Africa]: Boulders Beach, home to one of the 28 African penguin habitats. These birds can only be found in South Africa and Namibia. But their survival is under threat, and one of the reasons is there is not enough fish in the sea.

Faroeshka Rodgers: The African penguin have to swim far distances to find food, but in the past that was not the case. We suspect this could be from commercial trawling or over exploitation of the food sources of the African penguin.

Eliza Philippidis: In just three years the number of breeding pairs has dropped by a fifth. Here at Boulders Beach the rangers are encouraging the penguins to use artificial nest boxes, hoping to increase their chances of breeding successfully. This colony is the only place in the world where people can swim freely with these endangered birds. As a result they get millions of visitors every year. Stabilising the population and increasing penguin numbers is a priority here. The aim? That children can see the African penguin in the wild.