Department of Statistical Sciences
University of Cape Town
| Avian Demography Unit
Department of Statistical Sciences University of Cape Town |
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Earthwatch Project: South African PenguinsDiary of Team Four
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Earthwatch Team Four, left to right: Ann, Janine, Rob, Sharon and Pat outside the cottage
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Thursday, 17 May 2001:
Team 4 met in the City Lodge Hotel at 17:00. After cocktails in the hotel bar, we reconvened at the Musselcracker, a restaurant at the Waterfront now known as the Earthwatch introductory dinner hot spot. We had a full house of fourteen diners that included Les Underhill, Director of Avian Demography at University of Cape Town, and Dr. Robert Crawford, Principal Specialist at Marine and Coastal Management. Rob will lead our team as our principal investigator for the first week of our session. Other locals with us were Mario Leshoro, Environmental Officer of Robben Island Museum, Rob's assistants Leshia Upfold and Bruce Dyer, Sue Kuyper, our logistics co-ordinator from UTC, and, our meals co-ordinator. Jenny Griffin and Kathy Calf joined us, both UTC students working on their advanced degrees on Robben Island.
The first all female Robben Island Earthwatch team was introduced. Pat Hines, of Sydney, Australia, is our veteran. She participated in Earthwatch projects in both Madagascar and Peru. Janine Lewerenz, from Berlin, is fresh out of law school and is spending seven weeks in South Africa before she joins the "real world" in the legal profession. Sharon Goldman-Salach and Ann Howley met as college roommates in Santa Barbara many years ago and have always had a fondness for penguins. Both now reside in the Los Angeles area. Ursula Gabel joined the dinner party as our Earthwatch mascot, as she travelled with Sharon and Ann to South African game parks prior to the project.
Many stories were shared including warnings about ostrich attacks, killer sharks and runaway traffic. We weren't quite sure which to believe.
Earthwatch Team Four with Table Mountain in the background
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Friday, 18 May 2001:
We met for the 7:30 ferry to Robben Island. The crossing was calm and beautiful, despite the fact that all locals promised a cold front was on the way. Several worried about seasickness but seemed to arrive relatively unscathed.
Sharon and Pat unpacked enough food for an army: an army of vegetarians! This team is also unique in its majority of non-meat eating members. It appears that a freezer full of meat will be bequeathed to Team 5.
Mario gave us a tour of the island. Ann and Sharon identified the various types of antelope, a new knowledge acquired in the Londolozi and Kalahari Game Reserves. We were all excited to see the penguins up close and personal.
Team 4 worked together on our first island meal, a special lunch with guests: Les Underhill, Kathy Calf and Ursula Gabel.
Our first official visit to be introduced to the penguins went smoothly until Pat spotted a penguin that was caught on a tree branch through his metal band. He was very skinny and had probably been trapped for many days. Rob rescued him and carried him through the training session. We fed him water through a feeding tube and found him a box to sleep in for the night. He was stored overnight and Mario shipped him on Saturday morning to SANCCOB, the bird rescue center.
Saturday, 19 May 2001:
Today we got down to business, after we stopped at Mario's office for an exchange of e-mail. Janine sent birthday wishes to her dad from the team. Sharon and Ann learned of the birth of a son, Jake Logan Miller, to our friend Wendy.
Mario escorted us this morning to show us where all the penguin study nests are located. At each marker, Pat would record which penguins were present in the nest and the state of their offspring. Janine was in charge of the GPS system and making markers for new test sites. Ann and Sharon scouted each area for other penguins with either metal or rubber identification bands.
After a fine lunch of toasted cheese, cucumber, avocado and tomato sandwiches, Sharon and Ann headed for the local market. While no one else understands the obsession, these two drink only bottled water. They insist this is normal Californian behavior.
It was already time to go back into the field. We split into two groups with a competition to identify the most banded penguins. Rob, Pat and Janine headed for the nesting sights while Sharon and Ann took the telescope to the beach. After 1½ hours, the dreaded cold front arrived and the teams called it quits. The prize went to the land-based team: 106 to 25!
Sharon cooked another fabulous vegetarian dinner: tri-color pasta with every vegetable in our pantry. Meal conversations seem to center around the words used for different foods. With four continents represented in our team, we have many lively discussions.
The evening was spent listening to the wind and rain while staying cozy in our new home.
Leshia Upfold in action
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Sunday, 20 May 2001:
The team slept in late, hoping the rain and clouds would be gone. They were not. In fact, the ferry didn't run and Mario could not get to work today. We proceeded with our work and after one morning squall, the weather cleared.
Our morning task was to collect as many numbers from banded birds as possible. We were happy with our team total of 264.
The team split up for afternoon activities. Rob, Janine and Pat selected specific nests to target where the mates had been unseen or unbanded. Using the GPS, they located their targets and marked as needed with bands and picric.
In the meantime, Sharon and Ann hit the beach again with high- powered binoculars to try to identify more banded birds. Sharon was perched on prime real estate at the entrance to Penguin Highway when she noticed a penguin that was much smaller, thinner and weaker than the others. She sent Ann to get Rob for his expert penguin opinion. However, the half-hour that Ann was gone was too much for Sharon and she captured the bird before he disappeared into the bush. Sharon and Ann gently set him into a SANCCOB box and waited for the rest of the team to finish their task. Rob decided that the penguin was definitely ill and would need some rehabilitation time.
Penguin A5057 came home with us and has been renamed Pablo. Pablo has had two feedings since arriving at Earthwatch Central and seems to be perking up quite nicely. He is now residing in the house kitchen until he can be transported to SANCCOB in the morning.
Monday, 21 May 2001:
First item for the morning: check on Pablo and give him another tube feeding. He seems to be a little perkier, but he is still very sick and needs to be transported to Cape Town.
We started the morning with a walk to Mario's office to see what arrangements could be made for Pablo and to check the whereabouts of our helper for the next 2 days; Bruce Dyer. Bruce is coming to the island for some projects of his own that we will help with. Our morning was taken up with a short bird tag count and making arrangements for Pablo. Our afternoon was supposed to be a tagging adventure of Bank Cormorants on the jetty. However, as soon as we walked near them, they flew off their nests and we were unable to get close enough to do anything so...mission aborted.
On to mission number 2: capture 10 penguins and make them regurgitate their last meal. Bruce's job then was to analyze their stomach contents. This was not exactly what we had in mind when we volunteered for this trip. Sharon and Janine were very hesitant to help with this seemingly inhumane task, but Rob explained that the reason we needed to do this was to help make sure that the penguins were getting enough of the food that they need for survival. The young penguins are currently threatened by fisherman who overfish their feeding grounds. If the trend is not reversed, we will continue to lose 2% of the penguin population per year.
We all pitched in to help to capture 10 penguins. Ann grabbed each penguin and gave them to Bruce to hold. Bruce held open their mouths while Sharon, Janine and Pat helped with adding water to their stomachs though a tube so they could then regurgitate some of the fish that they had for dinner. Thankfully Bruce promised to analyze the data outside in the laundry room and not in the kitchen. However, since he is missing some supplies to help with the analysis, the stomach samples are now in our deep freeze and tagged as dinner items for Team 5.
Can't wait to see what Bruce has in store for us tomorrow!
Bruce Dyer and Ann Howley at work
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Tuesday, 22 May 2001:
The team split up again for morning duties. Bruce, Janine and Pat completed the Bank Cormorant nest count on the jetty. Mario, Sharon and Ann worked on the rounds of the Earthwatch nests. The team regrouped on North Perimeter Road to complete the rounds.
The afternoon goal was to find Peter the Penguin, the elusive A14059! Peter was equipped with a satellite transmitter after the June 23, 2000 oil spill. While the other two birds with transmitters, Percy and Pamela were later relocated, Peter shed the transmitter and eluded all search parties. We came close...we found A14057 and A14039, but no Peter.
Our last good deed of the day was to capture a penguin found with the temporary SANCCOB band still attached. We removed the band, which could later hinder his molt and called it quits for the day.
We were pleasantly surprised to find that Rob had made dinner while we were out. Since it is his last night with us, he probably wanted to leave us with a good impression.
Our evening ends enjoyably with Bruce's fabulous Marion Island wildlife slide show and a strong dose of microwave popcorn.
Wednesday, 23 May 2001:
Happy Birthday, Janine!
Janine's birthday is celebrated with a day off. Of course, we aren't ready to escape our beloved penguins. So, a visit to SANCCOB is arranged to check on our two rescued birds. There was sad news that Pablo died the day after his arrival. We also learned that our other rescued friend is still not doing well. We watched him try to swim in the pool, but he clearly was not ready for that. Prayers will be said for him tonight.
Next was a special birthday lunch at the waterfront. We met Ursula Gabel one last time before her return to Los Angeles. A whirlwind trip through the local shops and we were back on the ferry to Robben Island.
Today was the changing of the guards. First, we said goodbye to Rob who is off to Peru this weekend. We now welcome Leshia Upfold, our new principal investigator. It is now a 100% female team.
We were privileged to have SANCCOB send some penguins back with us from Cape Town for re-release in the colony. It was wonderful to see the three birds rejoin their friends on the beach.
With pizza brought from Cape Town and a wonderful carrot cake baked by, the birthday celebration came to an end.
Thursday, 24 May 2001:
Today was Field Trip Day for Team 4: another of Bruce's wild adventures. We caught the 6:45 ferry to Cape Town where Bruce and Mario picked us up in the van. We drove two hours to Gansbaai, the launching point for Dyer Island. Unfortunately, the tide tables had not been consulted in advance. This delayed our departure and vastly shortened our time on the island. We were finally able to cross to the island with the assistance of Wilfred Chivell, a local sea captain, stopping briefly to look for great white sharks and to view Cape Fur Seals on Geyser Island.
Tony Venter, the only resident of Dyer Island, met us at the dock. Tony's job is to keep poachers away from the endangered abalone surrounding the island. His "front yard" is churning with sea birds including Bank Cormorants, Hartlaub's Gulls and Swift Terns. Our job was to band the Swift Tern chicks. We herded the chicks into our trusty SANCCOB boxes. Mario followed behind the herd, bagging regurgitated fish for Bruce's later analysis. One by one, each downy chick received a metal band on his left leg and a 'Canada band' on his right. After 34 birds, our work was done and time was up.
Another two-hour drive back to Cape Town and the ferry brought us back to Robben Island. Leshia met us with another Marine Coastal Management employee, Mike Paterson. Mike helped Leshia today build a spring-activated penguin trap for future regurgitation testing.
Mike and Leshia prepared our first South African braai (B.B.Q.) and the first meat cooked in this house in over one week. Vegetables and cheese sandwiches also were prepared. Left over birthday cake completed the meal.
African Penguin on its nest
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Friday, 25 May 2001:
The real cold front arrived in the middle of the night. Leshia had told us in advance that we would not do penguin sightings during a storm. The storm lasted all day, with alternating rain and wind like we had never seen or heard before. From our window high above the sea, the white caps on the waves were visible.
Mike had planned on bringing his 13-year-old daughter Lyndsay to the island for the weekend. We were looking forward to her help with our goal to reach 2,000 penguin re-sightings before the end of our term. Unfortunately, there was no ferry transport, so Lyndsay could not join us and Mike could not leave. You'd think he would have enjoyed being trapped with five lovely ladies!
The day mostly centered around food: Pat's home-made soup, Ann's popcorn, and Janine and Sharon's Greek salad and quiche dinner. Strong doses of hot beverages helped to keep the team warm.
We hope tomorrow's weather will allow us back into the field.
Saturday, 26 May 2001:
Getting back to our penguins took awhile today. Each time we headed out the rain started again. So, we finally gave up and had brunch cooked by Sharon.
In the afternoon, the weather finally co-operated and we started on the far side of the breeding area for more re-sightings. Leshia found one penguin with a metal band that was open and caught on either side of her flipper causing infection. Thus, Rescue #3 and another penguin resident in our kitchen: Lola. Tomorrow we will arrange for transport of Lola to SANCCOB.
Lyndsay, Mike's daughter, was finally able to join us on the island. She and Mike found a penguin with an albino chick. According to Leshia, this is only the second albino penguin found on Robben Island.
Dinner was our second braai, as now our meat-eaters outnumber our vegetarians.
Sunday, 27 May 2001:
The team split up to do our morning observations. Sharon headed to the beach again, telescope in hand. Ann and Mario took Leshia for her first time to the Earthwatch nests. Pat, Janine, Mike and Lyndsay concentrated on penguin re-sightings.
True to form, Janine rescued our fourth bird. She found L6877 (also known as Charlie) lying on the rocks at the beach. He was very thin. Since it was still early in the day, we were able to put him on the afternoon ferry to be picked up with Lola by SANCCOB.
Ann stayed behind during the afternoon fieldwork to do the computer input. The team pulled together to boost our re-sighting total to 339 for the day and 1,602 total. We have two more days to reach our goal of 2,000.
We can feel southern winter approaching as each morning and night seems colder to us than the one before. Tonight we warmed with a pasta dinner and herbal tea.
Monday, 28 May 2001:
Robben Island is primarily known for its prison: the prison where Nelson Mandela and many, many other political prisoners were incarcerated for many long, torturous years. The entire island has been designated a "museum" dedicated to the idea that human spirit triumphed over brutality within the prison walls.
While our purpose here has been largely environmental, we cannot ignore the prison and related buildings that permeate the island. In fact, all island residents work for the museum. We walk past the historic areas on the way to and from the penguin breeding grounds each day. Even with talking to our South African friends and reading related books while we have been here, we do not pretend to understand South Africa's past.
This morning we finally took the "official" tour of Robben Island. Unfortunately, our tour was very over-crowded and it was hard to appreciate what was being said. The tour starts with a bus trip around the island. We saw very little that we hadn't already seen on foot. Then, a former inmate leads the prison tour. Our leader, Eugene, served seven years for being a student organizer working for education for blacks. Eugene gave descriptions of prison conditions during the harshest periods in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as during his incarceration in the 1980s. While we left with a few visual memories, there are still more questions than answers.
After our lunch break, we segued back to our current goal: 2,000 penguin re-sightings. Today, we officially made our goal. In fact, we end the day with 2,034!
Monday is designated as TV night here. We are settling in for a night of popcorn and ice cream with Frasier, Dharma and Greg, and Ally McBeal. Just like at home.
Tuesday, 29 May 2001:
Our final full day on Robben Island brought a new visitor to our home. This morning Les Underhill surprised us with Heather Dugmore, a representative from WWF. She is doing a story on the one-year anniversary of the oil spill that so affected "our" penguins. (The article will appear after June 14th at www.nedbankgreen.co.za) Heather interviewed Leshia extensively and then we took her on a tour of the penguin colony to see healthy birds that survived the spill.
It was a good thing we met our penguin re-sighting target yesterday, because today's weather was totally uncooperative. Most of Heather's tour and our afternoon final visit to the Earthwatch nests were rained out.
The final count: During our two-week term, we observed 2,047 re-sightings of 1,764 different birds. Many of these birds were those rescued during the oil spill. We were very happy to see so many healthy birds and so much breeding on the island.
It has been a wonderful two weeks on Robben Island. We hope that in time the environmental assets of this island will be appreciated along with its' historical significance.
We want to thank all the many people who helped us enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime experience. We have listed you in our diary adventures and hope our paths do cross again.
