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The Greatest Bird Rescue Ever Transcript-1151
BirdNote®
The Greatest Bird Rescue Ever –
African Penguins and the 2000 Oil Spill
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote!
On June 23, 2000, an enormous iron ore tanker sank off the coast of South Africa, between Robben (pronounced RAH-bun) and Dassen (pronounced DASS-un) Islands. [Sound of stormy seas and a ship crashing] The islands are critical nesting sites for African Penguins, also known as Jackass Penguins for their loud, braying voices. [Jackass Penguins braying]
Fuel from the tanker covered 19,000 adult penguins in oil – right at the peak of their breeding season. Word of the birds’ predicament spread quickly. Tens of thousands of people arrived to volunteer their help. The oiled penguins were removed to an abandoned warehouse in Cape Town to be cleaned and cared for. Another 19,500 penguins that had so far escaped the oil were taken from Dassen Island and released at sea, over 600 miles to the east. [Jackass Penguins braying]
It took the penguins released at sea nearly three weeks to swim back home, allowing workers time to clean up the oil-fouled waters and beaches. The entire rescue effort lasted over three months, and saved more than 91% of the oiled penguins.
[Jackass Penguins braying]
Learn more about the rescue—and about other conservation efforts on behalf of birds—when you come to our web site, BirdNote.org. I’m Frank Corrado.
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Call of the Jackass Penguins provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Recorded by T. Smith.
Ambient by Kessler Productions.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2009 Tune In to Nature.org Revised for June 2009
ID# 062907rescueKPLU penguin-03-2009-06-02-
http://web.uct.ac.za/depts/stats/adu/oilspill/oilspill.htm
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