{"id":27339,"date":"2025-12-10T11:31:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T06:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=27339"},"modified":"2025-12-10T15:27:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T09:57:34","slug":"african-penguin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/african-penguin\/","title":{"rendered":"African Penguin"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>African Penguin Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, a new study found that over 60,000 African penguins starved to death between 2004 and 2011 after sardine stocks collapsed.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About African Penguin<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The African penguin (Spheniscus demersus) is a species of penguin that lives in <\/span><b>southern African waters.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>flightless<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and adapted for a marine habitat.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Breeding:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The species breeds naturally in <\/span><b>burrows dug into guano<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (a natural substance composed of the excrement of birds, bats, and seals), which protects them from the extreme heat of their environment.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Appearance:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It has a black stripe and a pattern of unique black spots on its chest, as well as <\/span><b>pink glands above its eyes that<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> become pinker as the penguin gets hotter.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Penguins can lose almost half their body mass during their <\/span><b>annual 21-day moult.<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During this period, the birds come ashore, shed their feathers and cannot enter the water to feed.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Habitat:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is usually found within 40 kilometers of the shore, coming onshore to a variety of coastal habitats to breed, molt, and rest.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Distribution:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is mainly found along the coast of <\/span><b><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/namibia\/\" target=\"_blank\">Namibia<\/a> <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and the Atlantic coast of <\/span><b>South Africa.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Lifespan:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Its average lifespan in the <\/span><b>wild is 20 years.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Threats:<\/b> <b>Global-warming-<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">induced shifts in the marine and atmospheric environment are destructive to the African penguin\u2019s habitat.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Conservation Status:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 IUCN: <\/span><b>Critically Endangered<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.downtoearth.org.in\/wildlife-biodiversity\/over-60000-african-penguins-starved-to-death-between-2004-and-2011-after-sardine-stocks-collapsed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">DTE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>African Penguin is a species of penguin that lives in southern African waters. Read more about African Penguin, Breeding, Habitat, Lifespan, Conservation Status, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":77274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4130,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-27339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-african-penguin","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}