African penguins are Endangered and declining rapidly due to prey depletion from industrial fishing, oil pollution, and climate-driven prey shifts. Their welfare in the wild is increasingly compromised by food insecurity.
African penguin welfare is acutely threatened by food insecurity — a consequence of prey depletion that causes chronic nutritional stress in breeding adults and high chick mortality from starvation. Chicks that fail to receive sufficient food experience prolonged hunger before death; adults failing to meet their own nutritional needs face physiological stress that compromises immune function and breeding success. Rehabilitation of oiled penguins — a major intervention of South African rescue organisations — addresses acute welfare emergencies effectively but does not address the structural prey depletion driving population collapse. The most significant welfare intervention available is policy change: establishing and enforcing fishing exclusion zones around key breeding colonies to ensure adequate prey availability.