Last reviewed: September 2026

Because everything that once sheltered and fed them has been squeezed at once. African penguins are now critically endangered, having fallen from millions of birds to a fraction of that in little more than a century, and the causes are not mysterious. They are historical, industrial and environmental, they compound each other, and understanding them briefly makes a visit to Boulders or Stony Point a great deal more meaningful.

The pressures behind the decline

Start with history. Generations of harvesters scraped the breeding islands bare of guano, the nutrient-rich droppings penguins dig nest burrows into, to sell as fertiliser. Without it, eggs baked in the sun and floods drowned nests. Egg collection, once a commercial industry, removed birds by the hundreds of thousands.

Then the sea changed under them. Commercial purse-seine fishing concentrated on sardines and anchovy, the penguins' staple prey, and the birds now compete with fleets for shrinking shoals, often having to swim further from their nests to find food. Oil spills have hit colonies hard more than once, ship-to-shore pollution is persistent, and predators that thrive near towns, from mongoose to domestic cats, take eggs and chicks. A changing climate nudges the fish, and the penguins must follow or fail.

Why 'jackass penguin'?

The African penguin's old nickname comes from its call, a donkey-like braying that carries across a colony at dusk. It is the only penguin that breeds on African shores, and the bray is one of the sounds that makes Boulders at closing time so memorable.

What protection looks like today

The mainland colonies you can visit, Boulders within Table Mountain National Park and Stony Point under CapeNature, are managed with boardwalks, rangers and seasonal controls, precisely because these birds need undisturbed nests to breed. Off the boardwalk, rescue work matters just as much: SANCCOB in Table View rehabilitates sick, oiled and abandoned penguins and chicks and releases them back to the wild, and its website is the place to follow that work and support it.

How visitors help without harming

Keep to the paths, never touch or feed, skip flash photography near nests, and give moulting birds extra space; they cannot swim while moulting and are burning reserves. Choose operators and experiences that treat wildlife as the point rather than the prop, and if you find a penguin in trouble on any beach, contact SANCCOB rather than handling it yourself. Small behaviours, multiplied by every visitor, are the difference between a viewing and a disturbance.

Where Aqua Terra fits

Aqua Terra is an owner-managed, five-suite guesthouse above False Bay in Simon's Town, minutes from the Boulders boardwalks. Hosts Garth and Natalie brief every guest on the do's and don'ts before their first visit, and the house rule is simple: the penguins were here first.

Check live availability for a Simon's Town stay, or message Garth on WhatsApp for direct booking help.

The short answer

African penguins are endangered because their nesting ground was mined, their food is contested, their seas are polluted and their climate is shifting. The colonies you can visit are protected strongholds, and a considerate visit, distance, no feeding, no flash, supports exactly the behaviour that keeps them breeding.

Frequently asked questions

How many African penguins are left?

The number is a moving target and best left to the specialists; BirdLife South Africa and SANCCOB publish current estimates and trends, and the direction of travel is the worry rather than any single figure.

Can the Boulders colony recover?

Recovery is possible where food is available and nesting undisturbed, which is why the management measures and rescue work matter. Colonies respond to protection when the underlying pressures ease.