Week 7 - PENGUIN TIME!!!!

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It's penguin time! Lou has now joined me for our 6 weeks in Cape Town with SANCCOB, the South African national centre for conservation of birds. SANCCOB is a seabird hospital in Table View, an area outside of Cape Town with stunning views over table mountain. The hospital is a rehabilitation centre, which at the moment has 103 penguins, a gannet, lots of hartlaub gulls and some cormorants, but takes in all seabirds that are injured, including flamingos, pelicans and albatrosses. There are staff, interns and volunteers on site, and admin staff and fundraisers who work there in the week. People come from all over the world to volunteer, and most of the time people are biology, marine biology or veterinary students, but there are also plenty of people like Lou who are volunteering because they love penguins.

SANCCOB is most famous for its work with the African penguin, a species that is endangered and whose numbers have fallen dramatically in the past 20 years. People used to collect their eggs and farm their guano for fertiliser, but then also recent pressures of overfishing, land predation and oil spills have caused the numbers to crash. In 2000 there was the "Treasure" oil spill, which caused thousands of birds to become oiled, and SANCCOB was the frontier of the recovery effort to save as many as they could. They focus on education and rehabilitation, and volunteers help to run the centre by working with the birds and releasing them back into the wild.

On Sunday Lou flew into Cape Town: I made her a sign with a drawing of a penguin on it, and I wore my penguin dress when she arrived. We chatted for a long time in the sunshine outside our apartment. We are staying in a place called Elements, which is close to SANCCOB. It is a hostel with lots of other SANCCOB volunteers, and Lou and I are in a lovely apartment with a kitchen and bathroom. It is a bit of a luxury cooking our own food after eating Dennis's food for so long in the Eastern Cape. Lou and I went for a long walk on the beach, passing the crashing waves and many seabirds, with a stunning view of table mountain. People everywhere were surfing and kitesurfing and we wandered for hours, catching up before finding a restaurant for sushi and cider. The food here is amazing! So much seafood!

Monday was International Women's day and a public holiday in South Africa, so we had another day before starting our volunteering. Lou and I did a massive shop with a large rucksack, and lugged 6 weeks worth of food back to our apartment. Then we took the bus into town, napping en route, to explore the waterfront area. It was great to be in the city, and we wandered the busy streets, explored the markets and drank wine and ate calamari in the sunshine. It felt like we were on a proper holiday!

Tuesday it was finally penguin time, and what an incredible first day at SANCCOB. Lou and I were super excited even to see a penguin, and I couldn't help but squeal "penguin" as we wandered into the amazing hospital. We watched a welcome video then were shown around. The birds are admitted by members of the public or collected by volunteer drivers at the centre. A lot of the birds are brought by staff working at the colonies who pick them up if they see they are sick. The birds are checked over by the vet and medications are administered as necessary. There are facilities for surgery and X-rays, and all of the birds have bloods taken as it is a sensitive way of identifying illness before clinical signs develop. Then the birds are admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) to be given fluids and medications, put under heat lamps and to start their recovery. They are kept in individual crates and have fluids, food, medication and tube fed every 2 hours. They are nebulised if they have respiratory infections in a giant box, and are also swum in then pool for 5-10 minutes to start their rehabilitation. When the birds are less critical they move to outdoor ICU and are kept in small groups. They still receive medications but are swum for longer periods of time to improve the waterproofing of their feathers, and the frequency of fluids and feeding is reduced. Then they are moved to a pen, with birds of similar age and strength, and progress through the centre, each time having longer swims more frequently. The birds are graded on their feather quality to ensure they are waterproofed enough to be released. During their stay they are tube fed or hand fed by the volunteers, and given fluids as necessary. When they meet the correct requirements (correct weight, high enough PCV and good feather quality) they have a transponder placed and are taken in cardboard boxes to various colonies to be released back into the wild. The average bird stays for approximately 1 month. The centre also has a specialised Chick Rearing Unit (CRU) where dedicated staff and interns spend all of their time, and volunteers and other staff are not allowed access due to biosecurity. Here, eggs are incubated and chicks are hand reared by specialist staff. The eggs are removed from the wild from nests that are abandoned or from nests where the parents are not strong enough or there are too many to raise. SANCCOB is famous for its success in hatching chicks from eggs removed from the wild, and it has been proven that penguin chicks do not need a parent to be able to survive. All of their instincts are innate and none are learnt. Once the chicks are big enough, they are transferred to the nursery and spend their time transforming from fluffy chicks to "blues" which are juveniles. Blues then gain their waterproofing and gain weight at the centre, and are then released into the wild. They do not have to be taught to feed, as again this is instinct and they will learn well in the wild. Rearing chicks from eggs has been proven to be a very good way to boost population numbers, and the chick survival rates at SANCCOB are actually higher than wild birds. SANCCOB also has a pen of resident birds they call "home pen". This is a permanent pool home to approximately 20 penguins, some gannets and gulls. These birds cannot be released into the wild, either because they are too tame, or have sustained permanent injuries or disfigurements which mean they would never survive in the wild. A few of the tame penguins are used for education, and these birds are taken to schools to be ambassadors for their species, to promote conservation.

On Tuesday, after we were shown around, we started our volunteer duties. You work approximately 4 days of the week, including weekends, from 8-5pm. We rotate around different areas, and progress as we learn each skill. The first skill is handling, the second hand feeding and lastly tube feeding. Most of the care of the penguins involves a lot of cleaning, as with any animal related job,and some of the jobs are far worse than others. "Mats and crates" and " general" are the worst, but someone has to do them to make the centre run smoothly. Other days you are on ICU or in a pen, working with the birds. The centre relies heavily on volunteers to run, and it cannot function without the volunteer programme. There are approximately 15-20 volunteers per day, and there are rehabilitator staff who train the volunteers and oversee all of the work done. Today I was on mats and crates, a job that involves power hosing penguin poo off of rubber mats and plastic crates, and it is a noisy job that involves lots of time for you to think and contemplate life. It is, however, an important job that you appreciate people doing when you need your penguins mats and crates cleaned. After an hour or so, however, I was summoned away by the volunteer coordinator and the vet, Natasha, who is from the UK, and asked if I could help them. They are running a project placing transponders (microchips) onto wild penguins and they needed a vet that is registered with the SAVC ( South African Veterinary Council) to go with them, as their other vet had recently left with little notice. I jumped at the opportunity to go, and they explained to me that I needed to learn handling and microchipping very quickly in order to be able to go. So that morning I was taught how to handle the penguins safely, first the Blues then the adults. I have handled angry cats and fidgity hamsters, but an adult penguin is by far the worst. They bite! A lot! So you have to wear gloves and neoprene arm guards, and kneel down, grab a flipper then grab their head so they don't bite you, then support their belly and lift them up. Along the way you get bitten multiple times, but nothing is as painful as the flipper slap! I helped with as many as I could, and they asked me to practice with as many adults as I could to get used to it. We were picking them up to put them into the pool, and the first time I nearly fell head first into the pool. It is important to distance yourself from the birds as much as possible in order to prevent them from becoming tame. This is very difficult especially with the Blues who look up and you, thinking you are its mummy, and "cheep cheep cheep" at you. Battered and bruised, I looked like I had been in a fight, but I had mastered the first part. Marguerite the volunteer coordinator said I had "no fear" of the birds, but I had learnt the hard way how hard they can bite. In the afternoon Natasha the vet showed me how to microchip the birds, which is done subcutaneously and on the left leg. They used to tag and ring the birds, but this has been shown to interfere with breeding and predation, so the transponder will be used when the colonies set up cable readers at entrances and exits to the colonies. We also helped take blood samples from the birds, a process which is done weekly, and a blood smear is analysed to check for early signs of infection. Being a prey species, like most birds, penguins hide signs of illness to avoid predation, until they are very sick, and it is often too late to treat. In Between learning all of this, I helped with mats and crates, and ended my day making electrolyte solutions for the birds and odd jobs to help the sanctuary run smoothly. I was apparently now competent, and ready for my 3 day transpondering trip tomorrow.

Wednesday to Friday I left my big sis at the apartment and drove to Stoney Point, a large penguin colony with over 2000 breeding pairs. The colony is 1.5 hours from the sanctuary, and I drove with Natasha the vet, and Michelle, a volunteer doing some research on the birds who was lucky enough to come too. The drive was beautiful, and we drove south of Cape Town, along the coast to meet Cuan, the Stoney Point penguin manager, and Katta, a penguin researcher who is in charge of the transpondering project. The project is actually funded mostly by Bristol Zoo, where I did a lot of my work experience at uni. The weather was pretty terrible, windy and raining intermittently, but nothing could stop my total delight at working in the wild penguin colonies. Natasha showed me the ropes, and we worked hard to place transponders in as many penguins as we could. The procedure was that Michelle would remove the penguin from its nest (adult, blue or chick as long as it was big enough) and Katta would mark the nests and collect GPS coordinates. I would scan for a chip, then measure head length, beak length and beak width for Kattas data. The adults we would take photos of their white bellies, as each marking is individual, like a bar code. Then we would place the chip in by removing some down feathers and then sterilising the skin. The microchipping is pretty much the same as a puppy, but more feathery. Then we would collect 6 feather samples for DNA sexing (African penguins look the same male and females, except the males have a bigger beak and are generally larger), and lastly weigh them. The weighing device is an old dog collar that we clip together under their wings, then suspend the bird in the air. They look totally ridiculous and the chicks utterly cute suspended in the air having no idea what is going on. This is all in between bites, flipper slaps and the wind and rain making life more difficult. But the idea is to place transponders on 10% of the birds and then place a transponder cable to read the chips and obtain more data as to why the penguin numbers are still plummeting. It felt amazing to be doing something so useful for the species, and I felt so privileged to be part of it. On Wednesday, after the days training, Natasha left, and Michelle, Katta and I returned to our home for the next few days. We stayed in a little cottage by the sea, with mountains on your left and the shore on your right. It was wonderful,and we had Kattas little 2 year old girl and her nanny staying too, and a roaring fire.

On Thursday the rain poured and the wind howled, but we battled to place as many transponders as we could. We managed 73 in total, 35 of which were in our last morning, but the weather stopped our work at times. The Stoney Point colony is one of the most successful land colonies in Africa, and there are penguins everywhere, it was hard to see how they are so endangered. However, there never used to be birds at this site. In the 1980's, a breeding pair nested here and the colony formed. It was wiped out a few years later but then recovered and subsequently thrived on the apparently good fish source here. Because the penguins were never supposed to be here, land predation is a problem, and human penguin conflict is an issue, as the penguins are residing in people's gardens. I would be over the moon to have a penguin nesting in my garden! So it looks odd here with so many nests, and one man even has a little electric fence around his garden to enable him to sit outside and be amongst the penguin colony. Because there are too many birds and not enough vegetation, the staff have build artificial nests out of fibreglass, to protect the birds from heat and the chicks from predation. It was amazing to be there among the artificial nests, working there. It is like a penguin village, with little tracks like roads, and penguin houses neatly aligned in the edges. As you work, penguins pull up sticks to make their nests, and everywhere you look a penguin or a chick is peering out of its nest at you. Some of the birds decorate their nests with shiny shells, and lots if them queue up behind you whilst you are transpondering, and we have to move out of the way to let them pass. It was an incredible experience to be there, and every now and again I would stop and think " I can't believe I'm microchipping a penguin!"Thursday lunchtime a group of volunteers from SANCCOB had their release at Stony Point, and we were again lucky enough to watch the penguins be released from their cardboard boxes to waddle down the slipway into the sea, and off into their re-found freedom. How amazing, to see them go off into the distance in the sea again.

On Thursday evening we met Alasdair, another penguin researcher who is doing his PhD on penguins fishing behaviours. As with Katta, he was so interesting to talk to, and he knew so much about penguins it was amazing. His project was to place cameras onto penguins for 24 hours to assess their feeding strategies, and ultimately improve the protection of the fishing areas, and make certain areas where penguins hunt, marine parks. He had the footage from his last penguin he put a camera on, and we watched in amazement at a 35 minute video of what I can only describe as a penguin with a go-pro on his back. It was the coolest footage I had ever seen. The camera was on the penguins back and you could see it Bob above the water, looking at other penguins, then you can see it make multiple dives underwater, of various lengths. On his dives you can see him eat fish, and you can also see other penguins diving. They can dive up to 60 metres and on the deep dives, the screen was black. It was so cool! Alastair was deploying another camera on a bird early the next morning, so Michelle and I offered to help, so we awoke before the sun rose and walked through the colony to find sadly that the chosen penguin had already left to go to sea. Oh well. But we got to see the sun rise over the penguin colony, and whilst we were waiting for Katta, we walked along the penguin boardwalk that the public go on, and spent some time just watching the penguins waddle and slip down the rocks into the water. They are the most ridiculous animals to watch, and they are always busy. I was so happy. Whilst we were placing transponders on Friday, the sun shone and it was awesome. Tourists were taking photos of what we were doing, and we felt like celebrities being the ones on the inside of the fence for once.

Friday afternoon came and we had to go home, and we drove back with Katta along the coast, seeing a whale along the shoreline. When I returned I had a meeting with Marguerite the volunteer coordinator about the transpondering. They want to make the most of me being a vet and being registered, and there are lots of penguins at different locations who need to be chipped. However, I said that I had come here with my sister, and I wouldn't do the transpondering unless Lou could come along too, as she comes first. I have come volunteering with my sister and it would be sad to leave her behind.I still also want to do the rehabbing of the birds and learn how to feed and tube. But I also want to do what is best for the penguins, and placing the transponders is something that will help much more than just one injured penguin, it will help the future generations. So we came up with a compromise that Lou could come on the transpondering trips too, and handle the birds and be scribe, as there is still plenty to do. When I went home and told Lou, she was over the moon to get to go and work on wild penguin colonies! At least then I would have someone there to share these incredible experiences with.

On Saturday 4 of us attempted to climb Table Mountain, but the weather was too bad higher up, so we headed to the Old Biscuit Mill for their Saturday food market, where I had the best sandwich of my life! It was amazing. Then in the afternoon we went to the District 6 museum, a museum about the apartheid era when a whole region of Cape Town was destroyed, and all of the black people were forced to move out of their houses by law,and were moved into the townships. It was incredibly sad, even more so being so recent.

On Sunday I worked in ICU, and was lucky enough to be shown the ropes, as I had only worked one day in the centre so far. ICU was full to the brim with birds, and I was kept very busy helping to give electrolytes, medications, water, food and nebulise all of the birds. Putting the birds in the nebuliser is the coolest thing, like the birds own little steam room! Something had to be done to each bird every 2 hours, and there was a lot to learn. I had the job of supervising the birds in the pool, and it is amazing to watch birds who has haven't swum for ages, getting into the water and playing around and re-waterproofing their feathers. It was hugely rewarding plopping them into the water and watching them have a whale of a time. (Or a penguin of a time). Some of the birds are very sick, and can barely stand, and others,like one with a big cut on his foot, had to have a heavy block out on his crate as he was a very good escape artist. In the afternoon I had the job of holding all of the birds for Marna the rehabilitator, to place bandages on the birds. They are super wiggly! This week I was thrown in again at the deep end, but my goodness penguins are funny creatures, and it is so rewarding to be part of an international effort to save this species from extinction. The fluffy little chicks are utterly adorable, and watching them suspend in the air whilst we weighed them at the wild colonies really doesn't get old. Working both with penguins in the hospital and wild birds makes you realise just how important this work is, and having Lou here too to share our penguin stories with is just perfect.

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