Pittsburgh’s National Aviary has ramped up its efforts to save the critically endangered African penguin, a charismatic species that is a popular draw at the North Side destination.
Populations of the bird along the South African coast plummeted by about95% in eight years, a new study has revealed, meaning the species could go extinct in the wild in a decade. There now are fewer than 10,000 breeding pairs in South Africa and Namibia; starvation and nest availability area among the factors endangering the birds.
The aviary is working with Association of Zoos and Aquariums on programs to bolster wild populations in the two African countries. Two aviary representatives visited sites in Namibia in September to oversee the installation and monitoring of artificial nests for the dapper birds.
Among other pressures, overfishing has severely impacted them, with many dying of starvation,
according to the study, published this month in “Ostrich, Journal of African Ornithology.”
For at least 20 years, the aviary and other researchers have recognized the role that poor prey fish availability has played in the decline of penguin populations in both South Africa and Namibia, said Patty McGill, program leader for the AZA SAFE African penguin program and senior conservation scientist at the National Aviary.
The aviary supports her work for the SAFE program, which leverages the expertise of AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums and their audiences to save imperiled species worldwide.
The SAFE African penguin projects “focus on a number of short-term strategies to ‘stop the decline’ while we have also been supporting some of the critical research to understand better long-term drivers of the decline, including the poor prey availability,” she said via email.
She and other researchers have indirect evidence that many young rescued penguins are on the verge of starvation.
“One of the challenges, as you may imagine, is that there is a lot of resistance to changing the fishing industries, and this issue has become political,” Ms. McGill said. Some limits have been placed to curtail fishing near penguin colonies. “There are some protected waters from commercial fishing near the penguin colonies in Namibia,” said Chris Gaus, the aviary’s assistant manager of animal care. He and Kurt Hundgen, the aviary’s senior director of animal care and conservation programs, visited two islands with penguin colonies in the country in September.
“Although you can’t fish there, we are still seeing a decline in fish stocks because of overfishing in general,” Mr. Gaus said.
Among other issues, the SAFE program is measuring fishing efficiency at key penguin colonies to better understand prey availability, Ms. McGill said. The AZA is also supporting projects that directly measure prey fish supply in the same areas.
“We are working with groups in southern Africa and internationally to support strategic conservation actions that may have the most positive impact on sustaining prey fish populations,” she said.
The AZA works with African and international conservation groups to develop strategies to save the birds. Its penguin program is involved with disaster response for oil spills and other calamities, artificial nest development and habitat improvement, individual penguin identification with transponders, penguin-seabird rangers on-site to monitor penguin colonies, and studying prey availability.
Of those programs, the aviary has led an effort to develop, install and monitor artificial nesting burrows. The AZA and other conservation groups have helped install about 2,000 artificial nests in South Africa.
Historical harvesting of guano, or seabird droppings, for fertilizer took away the penguins’ burrows. Although the practice has ceased, it will take years to increase the guano for nesting again.
Since African penguins are a burrowing species for nesting, the aviary has been working with others to develop insulated artificial burrows. It’s a stopgap measure to help the birds breed successfully while levels of bird guano increase, Mr. Gaus said.
The artificial nest project has been around for about a decade in South Africa, researchers said. In Namibia, the aviary has been leading an expansion of a nesting project over the past several years.
In September, Mr. Gaus and Mr. Hundgen added 35 artificial nesting burrows in Namibia, including two islands off the coast, with plans to add more in 2026.
“It was great to see some early hatchlings on the island already,” Mr. Gaus said.
Only a day after installing the new nests, the pair said they saw penguins inspecting the artificial burrows. They have since received word that someof the penguins have moved into their new nests.
First Published: December 28, 2025, 4:00 a.m.
Updated: December 28, 2025, 10:50 a.m.