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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Phoebe Weston

60,000 African penguins starved to death after sardine numbers collapsed – study

Two penguins and a shoal of fish underwater
African penguins hunting sardines near Cape Town. The species is critically endangered, with fewer than 10,000 breeding pairs left. Photograph: Peter Verhoog/Minden Pictures/Alamy

More than 60,000 penguins in colonies off the coast of South Africa have starved to death as a result of disappearing sardines, a new paper has found.

More than 95% of the African penguins in two of the most important breeding colonies, on Dassen Island and Robben Island, died between 2004 and 2012. The breeding penguins probably starved to death during the moulting period, according to the paper, which said the climate crisis and overfishing were driving declines.

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