Today we had another release of a healthy batch of our rescued African penguins that we have been rehabilitating for the past two months.
Releasing eight of our African penguins this morning on Lookout Beach , Plettenberg Bay, held so much excitement , not only for our Tenikwa Team but each of the individuals that came to join us for this magical experience as well as our conservation partners : Nature’s Valley Trust, SA Birdlife, Plett Bird Club and the Orca Foundation.
At our previous release we had eleven African penguins returning to their natural habitat after being rehabilitated by us, unfortunately we had one little fellow that did not feel ready to face the open ocean just yet. He turned around and ran straight back into the arms of Tenikwa, where we continued to foster him.
On that release we had a number of Greenwood Bay College’s children that came to support the Penguins on their big day. They were so touched by the experience that they went back to school and decided to raise funds for the work Tenikwa does. They fell so in love with the one little penguin that didn’t want to return to the ocean, that they gave him a nickname: Mr Waddles, the reluctant penguin.
Greenwood Bay’s Grade 2 class happily surprised us with a donation of R1300.00 that they have raised to help us rescue more penguins.
At Tenikwa we have 2 rehab pools for our penguins to prepare them for release and therefore we have decided to use the donation from Greenwood towards upgrading our filtration systems in our pools.
Two of Greenwood’s Grade 2 children, Kay and Addison, did us the honor of opening the gate for the penguins to go back to the big blue. It was a magical experience seeing the actions of the penguins and the reaction of the children. Even Mr. Waddles was brave enough to follow the rest of the penguins out to sea and kept up with their energetic swimming and diving.
We wish to thank all our community members for getting directly involved with finding penguins in need and bringing them to Tenikwa for rehabilitation.