Hand-rearing and releasing African penguin chicks, including from eggs, has long proven valuable because moulting parents, being shore-bound, are unable to feed late-hatching chicks. Since 2006, over 7,000 orphaned chicks have been released into the wild as part of the Chick Bolstering Project, with a success rate of 77% . A new project at Boulders Beach aims to use real-time weather station data, within-nest temperatures and known thresholds of penguin heat stress as triggers for implementing a Heat Wave Response Plan. Drawing on well-established chick-rearing facilities and a large body of expertise, this includes removing heat-stressed eggs and birds, hand-rearing and/or rehabilitation and release. It is hoped that such birds can be released at the proposed new colony site.
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report