Twenty-eight penguins have already "died or caught the disease and consequently had to be put down", told AFP Dr. David Roberts, clinical veterinarian at the Southern African Foundation for Coastal Bird Conservation.
The rangers, dressed in protective suits to avoid participating in the transmission, "patrol every day in search of birds showing symptoms".
The Boulders Beach penguin colony, located in Simon's Town on a spectacular coast about twenty kilometers from Cape Town, is home to some 3,000 African penguins, a species found exclusively in southern African waters.
The bird flu virus, which is usually transmitted through droppings, was detected in the country in May last year and affected various seabirds, according to SANParks.
African penguins are on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species.
"They face other stresses, ranging from lack of food to habitat destruction and ocean ecosystem collapse...and in those cases, we fear that disease will strike them." push to the end".
© 2022 AFP