Needs nutrient-rich waters. The main historical threats included guano scraping and egg collecting. Guano scraping activities significantly reduced the amount of good quality nesting habitat at many colonies, while the egg collecting had a major impact on population numbers, not only through the eggs that were harvested, but also due to the large amount of disturbance caused during these activities. Both of the above activities have now ceased, but the impact on the populations has obviously been enormous. The two main threats facing African Penguins today are Oil pollution and competition with commercial fisheries.
Oil pollution has a major impact on African Penguins.
Catastrophic oil spills occur irregularly, but there is persistent, chronic oiling. We also know that many of the penguins returning to their colonies do attempt breeding, some very soon after their return. The difference between the productivity of Apollo birds and control birds was only noticed in two of the 18 studies that have been conducted over a six year period and these studies were conducted in the first two years of the project. Therefore, the impact that oiling has on the breeding success of African Penguins is short term in nature and the penguins do recover from these effects. Many of the above threats are natural.