Another day at SANCCOB, another area of focus. Paul and I crossed paths for the first time today and were both scheduled to work with the younger penguin chicks. These are the birds that are well enough to leave the intensive care unit but aren’t ready to hang with the big boys yet. Some of them are quite small, weighing less that 4 pounds each! (For an idea about what it takes to weigh a chick, check out this post about our own penguin chicks at the Aquarium!)

Our charges for the day

Within this pen there are a couple of different age chicks, determined by where they are in the molting process. Molting (or losing their feathers and growing in new ones) is important to every penguin. For the chicks, however, it means a new stage in life. Chicks have a layer of downy feathers that they need to outgrow before they hit the water full time. Once the birds molt from their downy feathers into their waterproof ones, they can then head to sea for the first time. At SANCCOB, they refer to these birds as “blues”, as their new waterproof feathers have a dark navy hue to them.

Chick with downy feathers

"Blue"

In addition to feeding and cleaning their pens, Paul and I worked with another volunteer to make sure all of the chicks and blues got their medication. Many of them are on additional meds to make sure they make a recovery. A couple even get nebulizer treatments, where the medication is made into a fine mist so the chicks can breathe it in. So it was a pretty intense day of making sure all the birds got the treatments they needed. In total, there was 2 feeding times, 2 formula times, 2 swim times, 3 medication and additional fluid times and 3 nebulizer treatments for those that needed it. Add  to it this updating charts, making sure proper liquids were given, cleaning and making things were set for tomorrow and you have one very full day!

I see you...

As if things weren’t hectic enough, 21 new chicks from a breeding area near Betty’s Bay came in to SANCCOB mid-afternoon. The new arrivals, as well as our charges for today, are part of the Chick Bolstering Project that both Paul and I are so excited to work with. The project works to make sure that abandoned chicks are collected from breeding areas, brought to SANCCOB to be raised until the penguins can be on their own and then released. It hit me today watching the new arrivals be processed that I am a part of that project. I’m doing something that can help this endangered species, a species that needs all the help they can get. Fortunately, SANCCOB is there to help. And now I am too…needless to say that left me with a smile for today. And how could you not love that face!

New chick arrival at SANCCOB today!

A new day at SANCCOB and another new task awaited Paul and I as we walked through the doors. He headed off to work with the more critical patients while I headed to a familiar spot to Paul: Pen 2!

Cute face but sharp beak!

The penguins that come to SANCCOB are organized into different holding pens depending on their age and condition: the younger chicks are in one area, those that need constant medical care are in another. Holding pen location number 2 (or Pen 2 for short) holds those birds that are out of the woods for the most part, swimming (even if it is for a short time) and are on their way to recovery. But that doesn’t mean it’s easier to take of them. Lots of work is still involved!

My home for the day

As Paul mentioned in an earlier post, each penguin (and there were 21 penguins in this pen today) has a daily regiment of fish, formula, medications, swim times and other items that all work together to form the recovery plan for each individual bird. As you can imagine, with 21 birds it’s A LOT of things to remember! That includes 3 swim times, 2 feeding times, formula time, 3 medication times and more! Thank goodness there is a data sheet for each today (like we have at the Aquarium), allowing the staff and volunteers to track what has been done already. However, to read it you need to learn a foreign language—every item has an abbreviation or color associated with it. It took a while to learn how to read the data sheet, but I think I got it down today!

Data chart for Pen 2

A major part of this daily regiment is catching each individual bird and delivering them to the staff person or volunteer who is administering the different treatments and feedings. As it was my first day handling birds, it was a crash course in how to pick up a squirming five pounds of muscle with a VERY sharp beak and hand it off safely to another person (or into the swimming pool). At this point, I would like to remind all of you that while penguins are cute, they are NOT cuddly animals. They will not hesitate to bite you, and boy did I get bitten today and have the bruises to prove it. As with anything, handling the birds got easier with practice but it is not a job for the faint of heart! In addition to learning how to handle the birds properly, it was a day filled with cleaning guano filled mats.

Guano (poop) filled mats to be cleaned

We were also busy making syringes of fishy milkshakes (known as “formula”) and setting the birds into the pool for their mandatory swim times. The swims are important not only to condition the penguin’s feathers but it gives the staff an idea of how the penguin is recovering. Feathers help keep penguins warm and dry and are vital to their survival in the wild. So the SANCCOB staff does a lot of work to see if the feathers are working properly. If the penguin swims for a bit and they still get water under their feathers, it means they aren’t ready to be released yet. If the feathers and down is dry after a good long swim, it means the day of release is a little bit closer! (Even our penguin chicks at the Aquarium get some practice swims!)

Formula = fishy milkshakes

Swim time!

Overall, today was a good day. I got to hang out with some very cool (but not cuddly) animals knowing that many of them won’t be at SANCCOB someday and will be headed back out to the ocean. I learned an incredible amount-how to handle birds, set up the pens, interpret the data sheets, which birds go for longer swims, how to apply topical medications and a huge amount more. I even got pooped on a bunch, a pretty common occurrence while handling penguins. So it was a good day working with good people doing good work to help a pretty cool group of animals. Not bad…minus the bruises!

Thanks for the day, fellas!

Today was the day that I’ve been waiting for since March—I finally had a chance to put my foot down on SANCCOB soil! It was a great feeling to finally have that piece of the Cape Town puzzle fall into place and to see the rescue and rehabilitation center where I’ll be spending the next four weeks.

As with any new job, the first order of business are introductions to the staff and other volunteers that are working to help better the lives of the African penguins and other seabirds that come through SANCCOB’s doors. There were lots of cheerful faces at the morning meeting, volunteers from all over the world ready to get to work. The SANCCOB staff was great at making sure everyone was clear on their assignments and then it was off to the races…or to the penguin pens!



Penguin holding pens

After a quick tour of the buildings and different penguin housing areas, Paul and I headed to our assignments. Paul went to off to help a volunteer named Sophie to do some larger tasks (laundry, defrost fish, do dishes, make fish milkshakes for the new chicks). I was assigned to be the volunteer buddy of Jen and together we were going to tackle the mysterious task of “mats and crates”.



Laundry...lots of laundry


Okay, a little biology refresher. Penguins are birds. If you have had a bird poop on your car you are well aware it’s not pretty. Well, penguins poop... a lot. Over everything—including the mats that they stand on and the large, oversized milk crates that some of the weaker birds rest in. So poop gets everywhere. And at SANCCOB (and the Aquarium) poop needs to be cleaned up. Thankfully, Jen and I were on cleaning duty today!


Oilskin pants to keep dry

We took all the dirty mats and crates and then started the soak, pre-rinse, wash, rinse, wash and rinse cycle, using a special veterinarian disinfectant and an industrial strength power washer. It was a lot of work but rewarding to see the pile of clean mats at the end of the day. Because of our hard work, a penguin would have a nice clean spot to stand or lie down. Until they poop on it again.


Tools of the trade

So all in all, a great day filled with seeing SANCCOB for the first time, meeting new people and cleaning penguin poop. It’s nice to begin to see first hand the great work that SANCCOB does and also it’s nice to be a part of it. I know there is a lot more to come and I can’t wait to see what tomorrow may bring!

Jo

Anyone who has traveled knows that there are equal parts excitement and nerves bouncing around your brain. And on the eve of my travels to South Africa, that’s exactly where I‘m feeling. Nerves and excitement!



My name is Jo and I’m an educator in the Visitor Experience team at the Aquarium. I teach our visitors all about the ocean world, the animals that live there and how we can help make it a better place. It’s a tall order to be sure! But fortunately I have some great animals and exhibits to talk about which makes it a lot easier. And what exhibit do I find myself talking a lot about? Our penguins!

Teaching visitors about turtles

People seem to bond with them easily, falling head over tails for their waddles, vocalizations and fantastic wardrobe choices. But many people don’t know how tough it can be to be a penguin. That’s where I come in. I can share the story of our penguin colony and use them to talk to visitors about penguins in the wild and the challenges they face. And that is the reason I find myself packing for the trip of an educator’s lifetime.

Aquarium's Penguin Exhibit (Sarah Estrada)

Thanks to a professional development grant given by the Aquarium, I am headed to South Africa to learn more about the African penguin, the struggles they face and what people are doing to help. I‘ll be volunteering at the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) where I will see and experience first hand how this organization works to rehabilitate oiled, injured, sick and orphaned birds. I will also be able to talk to other educators in South Africa, learning how they educate and spread the word about these amazing birds. In the end, all of this information will come back with me to Boston and be used to further our educational messages about these animals.

Penguins on the beach (WikiCommons)

So here it is. The eve of my trip and the nerves are still there. But after thinking about what I’ll be doing, the balance is starting to tip more and more into the excited column. I hope that you’ll read along for the next few weeks and see how amazing penguins can be. In the meantime, I have to continue packing!

Jo