By Nneka Nwogwugwu
A swarm of bees has killed 63 endangered African penguins on a beach outside Cape Town.
The birds were found dead last Friday on the beach at Boulders, a popular tourist destination south of Cape Town.
They were part of a colony of African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) living in a nature reserve, which are considered endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
The area is a national park and the Cape honey bees are part of the ecosystem.
“After tests, we found bee stings around the penguins’ eyes,” David Roberts, a clinical veterinarian and part of the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds, said on Sunday.
“This is a very rare occurrence. We do not expect it to happen often, it’s a fluke. There were also dead bees on the scene.”
The South African National Parks said the birds were taken to the foundation for post-mortem – which showed all the penguins had multiple bee stings – and samples sent for disease and toxicology testing.
“There were no external physical injuries found on any of the birds,” a parks statement said.
Some of the animals were found with 20 or more bee stings, spokeswoman for the South African Nature Conservation Authority SANParks Lauren Howard-Clayton, told the dpa news agency on Monday.
