Visit this link to help provide homes for endangered African penguins: http://www.aza.org/kickstarter

I am privileged to work with a group of African penguins at the Newport Aquarium in Kentucky, and I tend to think of them as close personal friends. I want to help out their wild cousins back in South Africa, so I'm spreading the word about a Kickstarter program run by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, called "Invest in the Nest!" There are 18 days to go as of this writing, and still around $33k left to raise in order to reach the goal. If you'd like to help out my penguin pals, please consider contributing! Here's some background about the campaign...

African penguins make their nests from guano (yep, that’s poop). Because guano is such great fertilizer, their nests are being destroyed, leaving penguins homeless. African penguins are endangered in large part because of the loss of habitat. Add the historical guano harvest to a dwindling food supply from overfishing, environmental impacts such as oil and plastics pollution, African Penguins are up against some tough odds. Despite tremendous preservation efforts, their numbers are continuing to decline at an alarming rate. It’s clear that we need a new approach to conservation: let’s give penguins a new home!

The artificial nests we’re making can’t be fabricated by machine. Each one must be made by hand so we’re working with local craftspeople in South Africa to provide them the skills and training necessary to build the nests needed. Building the nests locally will also put money into the economy and create a sense of ownership in helping protect this local treasure. Once the nests are created, they’ll be subjected to rigorous scientific testing and ongoing monitoring to ensure that penguin populations are happy and healthy in their new homes. Success will be determined by an increased survivability rate for eggs and chicks after each nesting cycle.

Our goal is to raise $150,000 on Kickstarter in 30 days in order to build 1,500 artificial nests and install them in penguin colonies. We’ll also install some in zoos and aquariums, so that we can continue to learn more about these unique penguin habitats. This project is supported by over 70 AZA accredited zoos and aquariums.

(")>
(/)
**