Today’s sketch came from a South African penguin toy, not to be confused with its Humboldt cousin from Sketch 51.
Sketch & Coffee, Live! is streamed daily at 5:30am, Texas Time, at the YouTubes
South African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) are warm-climate penguins, nesting in burrows on islands off the coast of southern Africa and VERY closely related to the Humboldt Penguins of South America. Like the Humboldt penguin, they have speckled chests, a facial mask, about two feet tall and are similar in size to a large housecat (anything but metric). They’ve been separated for around 2-4 million years but can still interbreed in captivity, which zoos try to avoid in order to maintain genetically distinct breeding populations. Guano core samples suggest their population was at its peak around 70,000 years ago and has been declining ever since. That long, slow slide likely started with glacial retreat, rising seas, and increased predation as more seabirds and seals moved into the same range.
Humans sped up the fall beginning in the 1800s, as we harvested guano from the beaches. Guano was scraped clean from islands, destroying burrow nests and exposing chicks to predators. Populations dropped from an estimated 2 million in1800 to under 20,000 breeding individuals today, even with conservation measures such as penguin rescue centers, zoo breeding progras, and stopping guano harvesting entirely. They are protected and labeled endagered still. Conservationists install artificial nest boxes, rescue orphaned chicks, and hand-raise them in costume to prevent imprinting on humans. Sadly, despite all our efforts, numbers are declining.
Click here to watch this episode of Sketching & Coffee, Live!
Leave a Reply