Passing tankers and other ships that succumb to the notoriously stormy oceans off southern Africa leak thousands of tons of oil into the oceans, onto beaches and on offshore islands. Once a penguin has swum through that oil its feathers lose their natural insulation and waterproof coating, and the bird can't swim. And if it can't swim it can't fish, so it stands around on the shore, shivering with cold, and starves.

Luckily, most people find penguins utterly engaging so, when they are threatened, as happened in 2000 with the sinking of the MV Treasure off Melkbosstrand, there is help at hand.

On that occasion, thousands of Capetonians of all walks of life volunteered anything from a couple of hours to a couple of days a week for 10 weeks to care for injured, oiled and sick penguins. In all, over the 10-week period volunteers worked 45 000 shifts, most of which were cold, strenuous, wet and uncomfortable.

The Boulders settlers

Even more heartening is that the penguins themselves are taking steps to ensure their survival ? holding their future firmly in their own two flippers. In 1983, an adventurous breeding pair found a really nice little beach, called Boulders, near the coastal suburb of Simon's Town in Cape Town, and set up home. The word seemed to have spread, and over the next few years more and more penguin couples came to nest on or near Boulders Beach.

There was no thick layer of guano in which to burrow, but there were convenient bushes under which to scrape out shelters they eventually turned into cosy nests. Some penguins found fantastic nesting sites in suburban gardens ? with varying degrees of welcome.

Some residents were delighted to have these lovely birds on their properties, while others found their incessant braying and, of course, laying down of a good guano base not conducive to a happy home and immaculate garden.

That may seem picky, but those first few pairs of penguins have now grown into the thousands, and can do a lot of damage to a nice garden ? and set up quite a noise and quite a smell. As the conflict between homeowners and avian residents hotted up, the local human community broke into two distinctly opposite camps ? pro-penguin and anti-penguin.

The impasse was settled when South African National Parks stepped in and incorporated Boulders into the Table Mountain National Park. The penguins now have their own breeding beach, the residents have fences to protect their gardens, and tourists have a visitor's centre, comfortable viewing platforms and boardwalks.

The penguins are not restricted to the breeding beach. They often hang out on the main swimming beach where they can waddle down to the sea and bob about in the calm, protected water, checking out the tourists. They wander through the car park, they've colonised nearby rocky coves, and they delight passing kayakers and other boaters as they swim out to sea in small groups, their tidy black and white bodies undulating through the water with graceful ease.

A visit to the Boulders Beach penguins is an obligatory stop on any tour of Cape Town, and fits in well with a visit to Cape Point.

Courtesy of www.MediaClubSouthAfrica.com