Seabird surgery and mad dash to save AP509, a Critically Endangered African penguin

As of today, 28 October 2024, the African penguin was officially uplisted from Endangered to Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), just one step from extinction. Despite the population being highly managed and monitored with a lot of human intervention, the species is on track to be extinct in the wild within the next 10 years.

In two weeks, Roberts will remove the stitches and wait until AP509 moults and his feathers grow back. The Sanccob team will then start swimming AP509 when his wounds are healed in their swimming facility for the seabirds. His swimming time will increase incrementally from 15 minutes to 30 minutes, until he can swim for an hour and has regained his strength. Then he will be fit enough to be released. (Photo: Kristin Engel)

On Thursday, 24 October 2024, the volunteers and workers of the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob) at their seabird hospital centre in Table View, Cape Town, prepared themselves to conduct wound debridement surgery on an African penguin, known as AP509, that had been bitten on its backside and tail by a predator in the wild. Clinical veterinarian Dr David Roberts performed the surgery, removing dead and unhealthy tissue and feathers from the wound, assisted by Fran Nel, a volunteer from Australia who is qualified as veterinary nurse. (Photo: Kristin Engel)

Once Roberts cut some of the feathers, cleaned the wounds, disinfected the skin and remaining feathers, he got to work stitching the wounds closed. AP509 had lost a lot of body weight, so besides the surgery, the teams will have to nurse him back to health by making sure that he’s eating enough, and that his pain and infections are controlled. (Photo: Kristin Engel)

AP509’s feathers were dry and broken. He’s had these feathers since last year and is expected to moult, soon after which he will grow a fresh coat of feathers. His feathers were becoming damaged and less water-proof over time, but also further damaged because of injuries from the predator bite. He had two wounds on both sides of his lower back and tail, along with some bald patches. Roberts estimates that the wounds were a lot bigger when the attack happened. ‘He’s probably been surviving with those wounds for maybe a month, so a lot of healing has already taken place.’ (Photo: Kristin Engel)

Ahead of the surgery at Sanccob, Dr David Roberts, clinical veterinarian, told Daily Maverick that the African penguins they treat at the seabird hospital in Table View often suffer similar injuries and wounds to those of AP509 – underweight with damaged feathers or other wounds from natural predators like the Cape fur seal or sharks. AP509 was picked up by a ranger at the gannet colony in Lamberts Bay on the West Coast and brought to Sanccob. (Photo: Kristin Engel)

The Sanccob team assists injured African penguins and chicks throughout the year, along with a variety of other seabirds that are picked up in the wild by rangers and citizens when they are found to be in distress. The rapid decline of African penguin populations have made the rescue and rehabilitation work at Sanccob even more critical. With less than 10,000 breeding pairs left, every African penguin and chick counts. (Photo: Kristin Engel)

When AP509 arrived at Sanccob, he weighed 2.54kg, when he should have weighed a healthy 3kg. Before heading into surgery, AP509 weighed 2.64kg and had been starved since the day before, to ensure he would not regurgitate during surgery, which could be dangerous. The teams also needed to ensure that the seabird was healthy enough to withstand the procedure, so a health check was performed in the morning. (Photo: Kristin Engel)

This comes as today on 28 October 2024, the African Penguin was up-listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), just one step away from extinction. The species is undergoing an extremely rapid population decline, resulting from the impacts of competition with commercial fisheries and climate-mediated shifts in prey populations. Recent, near-complete count data for the number of breeding pairs show an alarming acceleration in the rate of decline and the current and future projected population reduction exceeds 80% over three generations. This trend currently shows no sign of reversing. (Photo: Kristin Engel)

From the moment AP509 receives the anaesthetic, volunteer veterinary nurse Fran Nel monitored him to make sure he was breathing well, that his temperature was right and that his reflexes were reduced enough for surgery, but that he was still alive. Sanccob has protocols that work well with seabirds, and the right medication, but Roberts warned that they kept adjusting the anaesthetic throughout the procedure. (Photo: Kristin Engel)

Because penguins need their feathers, rather than removing them medics disinfect the feathers and the skin so that they are surgically clean. But AP509 still has to moult (shed feathers naturally to allow for new growth) and had so much feather damage that in this occurrence, Dr Roberts did cut some of the feathers away for the surgery. (Photo: Kristin Engel)

The team said that what they dealt with could be disheartening at times because as hard as they tried to save each penguin, it still felt that they were fighting a losing battle to save the African penguin without the full support of the law and government to protect the natural environment and fish that these animals rely on to survive. (Photo: Kristin Engel)

AP509’s feathers were dry and broken. He’s had these feathers since last year and is expected to moult, soon after which he will grow a fresh coat of feathers. His feathers were becoming damaged and less water-proof over time, but also further damaged because of injuries from the predator bite. He had two wounds on both sides of his lower back and tail, along with some bald patches. Roberts estimates that the wounds were a lot bigger when the attack happened. ‘He’s probably been surviving with those wounds for maybe a month, so a lot of healing has already taken place,” Roberts said. (Photo: Kristin Engel)