Queuing like school children, these penguins are waiting to receive the life-saving medicines and nutrition. They owe their lives to SANCCOB, the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds.

SANCCOB responded to a call for help from the Namibian(纳米比亚) government, after 156 penguins were rescued from an oil slick off the coast near Luderitz.

It’s believed the slick was from a sunken trawler(沉没的拖捞船). “And researchers on the bird islands saw the penguins becoming oiled. Because there are not any rehabilitation facilities in Namibia, they requested the SANCCOB’s help to evacuate these birds and rehabilitate them.”

129 of the penguins were moved about 600 miles to the SANCCOB center in Cape Town(开普敦，南非首都) for treatment.

African penguins, also known as jackass penguins, are listed as vulnerable to extinction on the IUCN Red List. Currently there are only about 36,000 breeding pairs left, a drop of 75% over the last 50 years. So this operation is important for the future survival of the species.

African penguins are the only species of penguin to inhabit the African continent, generally living along the coast of Namibia and South Africa, but groups have been found as far away as Gabon(加蓬) and Mozambique(莫桑比克). After a four-week rehabilitation period, the countless rounds of medication…