The Great Penguin Rescue: Saving the African Penguins

by Sandra Markle

Overview

African penguins waddle around nesting colonies in lower numbers than ever before. Despite South African government efforts to protect the penguin colonies and their ocean fish supply, young penguins still struggle to survive. Fuzzy chicks waiting for food in open nests may overheat in the sun or become prey. Others simply may not get enough food to survive on their own once their parents leave. But new conservation methods, including rescuing and hand-feeding vulnerable chicks, are giving experts hope. Can volunteers and scientists help save Africa's only penguins before it's too late?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781512413151
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/01/2017
Series:	Sandra Markle's Science Discoveries Series
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	1,077,460
Product dimensions:	9.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	1070L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Sandra Markle is the author of numerous award-winning books for children. A former elementary science teacher, she is a nationally-known science education consultant. Markle has received many honors for her series Animal Predators, Animal Scavengers, and Animal Prey. Several titles have been named as National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)/Children’s Book Council (CBC) Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12, and Animal Predators was honored as a Top 10 Youth Nonfiction Series by Booklist.

Markle is also the author of the Insect World series and several single titles. Her book Rescues! was named a Best Book by the Society of School Librarians International and a Recommended Title of Outstanding Nonfiction by the National Council of Teachers of English’s (NCTE) Orbis Pictus Award committee; Animal Heroes was named a 2008 Lasting Connections title by Book Links. Markle lives in Lakewood Ranch, Florida with her husband, photographer Skip Jeffery.

Editorial Reviews

"[W]ell-chosen photos appear on every page of the book and illustrate the text very effectively. . . . A vivid introduction to African penguins, their remarkable rescue, and their still precarious existence."—starred, Booklist

From the Publisher

06/01/2017
Gr 4–7—Markle continues her series of books about efforts to save endangered species, this time focusing on the plight of penguin colonies along the coast of Namibia and South Africa. She deftly incorporates information about the penguins' life cycle into her examination of factors that led to a disastrous population drop from an estimated four million adults in the 1800s to about 50,000 in 2010. Humans removed guano from nesting sites, ate eggs, and overfished feeding areas. Also, warming oceans forced adults to swim farther for food. However, the greatest threat came in 2000, when a sinking ore carrier released a massive oil spill during breeding season. Markle documents how thousands of volunteers cleaned oil-coated birds and transported others to safety. She describes ongoing efforts of the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) to increase African penguin numbers by raising orphaned chicks, hatching abandoned eggs, and exploring possible sites for a new colony. She neither minimizes the major difficulties nor ignores SANCCOB's steady accomplishments. Numerous photos accompany the engaging text and may surprise readers accustomed to seeing penguins against snowy landscapes instead of sandy beaches. Clare Hibbert's Penguin Rescue uses some of the same stock photos to illustrate a less detailed presentation of SANCCOB's work. VERDICT Markle delivers another compelling story of wildlife conservation efforts that deserves a place in most collections.—Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University Library, Mankato

School Library Journal

★ 2017-06-05
Scientists use varied approaches to rescue and restore a dwindling penguin population in South Africa and Namibia.Penguins are birds Markle has studied and written about before, and they make an ideal subject for this companion to her accounts of conservation efforts for Brazil's golden lion tamarins and Russia's snow leopards. The stories are similar. The penguin species called African penguins nest on beaches and islands in the southwestern part of that continent. Once numbering in the millions, their population was greatly reduced due to human harvesting of the guano in which they dug their nests, the eggs they laid, and the fish they ate. Climate change and oil spills have also taken their tolls. From the opening focus on a hopeful, hungry, apparently abandoned chick to the final pages describing its rescue and return, readers will be enthralled by this relatively optimistic, though still evolving, story, which is enhanced by solid backmatter. The text is smoothly written. Clear, concise explanations show how human actions have led these birds to the edge of extinction and how humans now work to help: protecting nesting and fishing grounds, rescuing and relocating oiled birds, and even hatching, rearing, and returning chicks to the wild. The thoughtful design gives prominence to the irresistible photographs from many different photographers. Smoothly written and beautifully presented, another stellar animal conservation tale. (author's note, additional facts, timeline, source notes, glossary, find out more, index) (Nonfiction. 9-13)

Kirkus Reviews