Waddle we have here? Freedom!

Thirteen African penguins took a short walk to freedom on Saturday‚ when they were released in Betty’s Bay.

They included 10 blues (immature penguins)‚ which were raised at the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) in Cape Town after their parents went into moult and abandoned them‚ and three rehabilitated adults.

CapeNature spokeswoman Loren Pavitt said the adults had been admitted to SANCCOB in Table View with an eye injury‚ a deep laceration to the flipper and a throat laceration.

“The flipper-wound penguin was also in arrested moult. It resulted in extreme weakness‚ as penguins cannot go into the ocean to feed without waterproof feathers. The circumstances to what caused the lacerations to the flipper and throat are still unknown‚” she said.

CapeNature CEO Razeena Omar said the Betty’s Bay penguin colony‚ at Stony Point‚ was of international conservation significance for the African penguin‚ supporting more breeding pairs than Dassen‚ Dyer and Robben islands combined.

“These three islands were traditional ‘strongholds’ of African penguins and other breeding seabirds‚” he said. But the number of breeding pairs at Dyer Island dropped from 22‚655 in 1979 to fewer than 1‚500 by 2013.

Omar said: “Stony Point is the only colony that has shown an increase in the number of African penguins in the last decade.”

Penguins released in 2013 and 2014‚ tracked with transponders‚ are successfully breeding at Stony Point‚ Boulders in Simon’s Town and on Robben Island‚ said SANCCOB research manager Katta Ludynia.