FORMERLY known as the jackass penguin because of its donkey-like braying, this week’s bird is the African penguin.
All species of penguin live only in the southern hemisphere, which is reached by the cold seas of Antarctica.
Thus they are found on cooler beaches from Port Elizabeth through to Cape Town and up the west coast to Swakopmund in Namibia. Standing at about 60cm and weighing 3.6kg, this bird is able to walk and swim but cannot fly.
They forage under water at sea, usually departing at dawn and returning at dusk. The African penguin can stay under water for two-and-a-half minutes, foraging up to 12km from land. It comes to land to roost and breed.
It feeds on fish, mainly anchovy, gobies, squid and octopus. Its swimming speed when hunting is 20km per hour with an average of seven when cruising.
It breeds throughout the year in 10.5 month cycles.
The nest is a pad of feathers and plant material in a burrow between boulders or against banks of earth. It lays two eggs and incubation is 36 to 41 days. Male and female share sitting duties in 24 hour shifts. The young are nestlings for 64 to 105 days.
There is no Zulu name as they do not occur along the KZN coast but the Xhosa name is Unombombiya.
