African Penguins!

Penguins? Oh, they live in Antarctica.  And maybe on display at Sea World.  Yeah, that's what we thought, too.  Until we got to Boulders, just up the street from the Cape of Good Hope.  There, we found a colony of the cutest 24" high critters we'd ever seen.  They were busy building nests, returning from a day of hunting krill and squid, and generally hanging out on the beach and in the bushes.  After hunting as a group, they swiftly swim to shore and go from being streamlined swimmers to awkward walkers, one minute to the next.   They are similar to the penguins we will see in the Galapagos Islands when we move to Ecuador.  This link will take you to a description of the African Penguin.  African penguins are endangered, their numbers having declined precipitously over the last few decades.  There are natural predators, in the sea and on land, but there are also the environmental messes we humans make and some of the roads we build through their nesting grounds that challenge these little creatures.  As always, we need to do what we can to protect the penguins’ habitats and quality of life. Yes, it's important for ecological reasons, but, also, well, they're just so darned cute!