JENNIFER HECK -
The beach at Simon’s Town, near Cape Town, is popular with families, who go there to swim, sunbathe and enjoy the soft white sand.
And they’re not the only ones - it’s also home to a colony of penguins.
“The penguins like it there because they have everything they need,” says penguin expert Wolfram Graf-Rudolf.
That’s right - not all penguins live in cold climates. African penguins live, predictably, in Africa.
At Boulders Beach in Simon’s Town, there are bushes where they can hide and lots of fish in the bay. They can be seen standing on the beach’s distinct granite boulders, while others lie on their bellies on the sand, waiting for a wave to come in and cool them down.
Because so many people come to the beach, the penguins have their own private bay, where only they are allowed to swim and play on the sand. Visitors can watch the penguins’ shenanigans from a boardwalk.
Lots of holes in the sand indicate where the penguins have dug their burrows, with each one belonging to a couple. “The penguins lay their eggs there and breed,” according to Graf-Rudolf.
Penguins pair for life and raise their offspring together.
“When all the holes are occupied, some penguins also breed in the undergrowth,” he adds.
Suddenly, a penguin begins waddling down from his boulder and onto the sand, heading towards the sea. A wave washes over his feet, and the penguin waddles a couple of steps farther in.
The second wave knocks him over - it’s rather funny to watch, as if the penguin is playing in the waves. But when the third wave comes, he spreads his wings and begins swimming, disappearing immediately below the surface.
“He’s like a good surfer, ducking straight under the breakers,” observes Graf-Rudolf.
The penguin reappears with lightning speed farther away, waggling his wings in the air. “Penguins don’t really have proper wings any more,” says Graf-Rudolf. “They’re more like a kind of fin.”
Penguins use their powerful chest muscles to drive their fins through the water, using their tails and feet to steer.
But despite their swimming prowess, the sea is a dangerous place for the birds because it’s there that their enemies live. Seals, for example, love to eat penguins.
Further out, the penguin is seen popping up again and then bobbing up and down on the waves like a duck. He dives under again.
“They dart through the water looking for shoals of fish,” explains Graf-Rudolf. Penguins have excellent eyesight and can see well under water.
Another penguin follows the first into the water. The birds’ feathers protect them from the cold in the winter, but in the summer they quickly get too warm on land.
That’s why they spend lots of time going down to the waves during the day to cool down. — dpa
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