At least 64 dead black-footed penguins have been found near Cape Town in South Africa. The local conservation authority SANParks suspects the animals were killed by bee stings and speaks of a “tragic and unusual accident”.
The birds were found on Friday at Boulders Beach, a popular tourist destination south of Cape Town. An autopsy showed that the animals were not sick or poisoned, but that they all had bee stings. There were penguins who had been stung more than twenty times.
Why the penguins were attacked by the bees is not clear. Conservationists hope to find the cause in nearby beehives.
The black-footed penguin is listed as a protected species by the International Organization for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The 64 animals were part of a protected colony in a nature reserve. In 2019 became a special sperm bank set up to save the penguins.
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