Want to adopt a penguin? Aw, cute. How can you say no?! Especially with a quirky name such as jackass penguin (more commonly known as the African penguin).
Located on the West Coast Way Cape Way Route
SANCCOB is the first stop on the West Coast Way Cape Way Route. Table View before you get to Blaauwberg Nature Reserve. SANCCOB is a registered non-profit organization whose primary objective is to reverse the decline of seabird populations through the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of ill, injured, abandoned and oiled seabirds, especially endangered species like the African penguin.
Adopt a penguin at SANCCOB:
Your adopted penguin makes donkey-like braying sounds when trying to communicate. It can dive underwater for up to 2 and a half minutes. How cool is that?!
Not only will you have an interesting topic of conversation at your next dinner party – I have my own penguin, but no, ahem, you can’t see it, but you will be helping to save an entire species as there are only 25 000 African penguin pairs left in the wild which makes the African penguin an endangered species.
SUPPORT SANCCOB: +27 21 557 6155
SANCCOB:
Once you have adopted your penguin chick (the cost involved is R700 only) from SANCCOB, the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds, you can choose a name for it. SANCCOB, a non-profit organization, will give you an adoption certificate with a photo of the new member of your household (albeit in absentia) and a brief history relating to your very own happy-footed chick.
Penguin chicks eat up to eight sardines a day but luckily for you, SANCCOB will take care of that as well as of the little one’s health.
Your penguin will grow until it’s about 60 cm tall and weigh up to 3.6 kilograms. It will have a short tail, flipper-like wings and webbed feet that look like it’s made for dancing. It will be covered in dense waterproof feathers. On the belly the feathers are white and on the back, it is black to help it with camouflage.
SANCCOB has been active since 1968. Since then they have saved 95 000 seabirds, treated 24 species, reared 2407 penguin chicks (yours could be number 2408!) and have seen a 19% increase in the African penguin population.
SANCCOB has two centres in South Africa, one in Table View near Cape Town in the Western Cape and one at the Seal Point Lighthouse in Cape St. Francis, Eastern Cape.
SANCCOB has a 24-hour rescue service for sick and injured birds and abandoned chicks. In the event of an oil spill, their workload increases tremendously. Apart from rescues, they are also responsible for rehabilitation and rearing of birds from penguins to cormorants, albatrosses, gannets, petrels, oystercatchers and pelicans. Apart from the African penguin, the Bank Cormorant and the Cape cormorant are also endangered.
In addition to the above, SANCCOB also provides environmental education to children and adults; they provide internships to adults, and they are involved in ongoing research.
Find SANCCOB on the West Coast Way Cape Way Route
Open Monday – Friday
Distance from Cape Town: 23km
Where: 22 Pentz Dr, Table View, Milnerton
Coordinates: 33.8338° S, 18.4913° E
Contact: (c) +27 (0)21 557 6155 | [email protected] | sanccob.co.za