A swarm of bees has killed 63 endangered African penguins on a seaside exterior Cape Town, the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds mentioned on Sunday.
“After tests, we found bee stings around the penguins’ eyes,” mentioned the muse’s David Roberts, a medical veterinarian.
“This is a really uncommon occurence. We don’t count on it to occur typically, its a fluke.
“There were also dead bees on the scene,” he advised AFP by phone.
The protected birds, discovered on Friday, had been from a colony at Simonstown, a small city close to Cape Town.
The space is a national park and the Cape honey bees are a part of the ecosystem.
“The penguins… must not die just like that as they are already in danger of extinction. They are a protected species,” mentioned Roberts.
The South African National Parks mentioned the birds had been taken to the muse for post-mortems and samples despatched for illness and toxicology testing.
“There were no external physical injuries found on any of the birds,” a parks assertion mentioned.
The post-mortems confirmed all of the penguins had a number of bee stings.
African penguins, which inhabit the coast and islands of southern Africa, are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s pink listing, that means they face a excessive danger of extinction.
© 2021 AFP
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Bees kill dozens of endangered penguins in South Africa (2021, September 19)
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