Beehive disturbance behind penguin attack?

63 African penguins were found dead inside the Boulders African penguin colony, with post-mortems showing they had multiple bee stings.

63 African penguins were found dead inside the Boulders African penguin colony, with post-mortems showing they had multiple bee stings.

Published Sep 20, 2021

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CAPE TOWN - Authorities say there must have been a major disturbance of a bee nest that probably resulted in the swarm attacking and killing 64 penguins in Simon’s Town.

On Friday morning, 63 African penguins were found dead inside the Boulders African penguin colony, with post-mortems showing they had multiple bee stings.

A dead penguin was also found on Fish Hoek beach, which the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) confirmed also had multiple bee stings.

SANCCOB said losing over 60 healthy and most likely breeding, adult African penguins was a blow for the Boulders colony, and the species that is already in trouble.

Rangers are monitoring the nests in the area as some of the dead birds would have had eggs and chicks, and there might be a need to rescue and hand-rear them.

SANCCOB said they admitted one African penguin chick and four eggs on Friday due to abandonment but could not say with certainty that the parent birds were of those that died.

“We anticipate that we’ll admit young ones in the week ahead,” SANCCOB said.

’’A bee expert was consulted on site at Boulders and advised that there must have been a major disturbance of a bee nest that could have resulted in the swarm of bees attacking the African penguins.’’

SANCCOB’s Clinical Veterinarian Dr David Roberts said Cape honeybees naturally live all around Cape Town and they were not surprised to see them in the area.

“If the African penguin was not in such trouble already, it wouldn't be such a tragedy. Sadly, the African penguin population is so depleted that any loss of any individuals is very worrying.

“Our post-mortem examinations of the dead penguins showed severe organ damage and inflammation, and no external marks of predation. After inspecting the carcasses, collecting biological samples, arranging tests and reaching out to other experts, we still didn't have an answer until we found a bee sting in one of the penguins.

“We then checked the others again and found stings still embedded around the eyes in almost all of the birds.”

Cape Times

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