A number of the African penguins, discovered on a seashore exterior Cape City, had 20 or extra bee stings.
A swarm of bees has killed 63 endangered African penguins on a seashore exterior Cape City.
The birds have been discovered lifeless on Friday on the seashore at Boulders, a fashionable vacationer vacation spot south of Cape City.
They have been a part of a colony of African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) residing in a nature reserve, that are thought of endangered, in keeping with the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Purple Record.
The realm is a nationwide park and the Cape honey bees are a part of the ecosystem.
“After exams, we discovered bee stings across the penguins’ eyes,” David Roberts, a scientific veterinarian and a part of the Southern African Basis for the Conservation of Coastal Birds, mentioned on Sunday.
“It is a very uncommon incidence. We don’t anticipate it to occur typically, it’s a fluke. There have been additionally lifeless bees on the scene.”
Publish-mortem
The South African Nationwide Parks mentioned the birds have been taken to the muse for autopsy – which confirmed all of the penguins had a number of bee stings – and samples despatched for illness and toxicology testing.
“There have been no exterior bodily accidents discovered on any of the birds,” a parks assertion mentioned.
A number of the animals have been discovered with 20 or extra bee stings, spokeswoman for the South African Nature Conservation Authority SANParks Lauren Howard-Clayton, informed the dpa information company on Monday.
Subsequent exams for toxins or pathogens have been inconclusive.
Authorities at the moment are trying to find the hive to seek out out what might have triggered the bee assault, Howard-Clayton mentioned.
The penguins, often known as Cape, black-footed or jackass penguins, breed in South Africa and neighbouring Namibia.
Previously three a long time, the variety of penguins residing in South Africa has dropped by 73 % to 10,400 pairs, in keeping with the Basis for the Conservation of Coastal Birds in Southern Africa.
In Namibia, there are nonetheless 4,300 penguin pairs.