I have been a fan of penguins ever since I was little. I would spend hours looking at them in the zoo; my mum would have to physically drag me away. What better way to learn about them during lockdown than to see them in the wild via Zoom? When I got the opportunity to learn more about penguins in South Africa, I couldn’t wait and started to prepare all my questions. 

Jon joined the Zoom call dressed in a penguin onesie even though it was 35 degrees, and welcomed me to Cape Town (virtually of course). He introduced me to Sushi his penguin toy, and showed me some pictures of Sushi the real penguin, and I fell in love with him! 

Jon shared his screen with me throughout the experience as he taught me all about South Africa and the African penguins on a slideshow. Although I was the only person in the class, Jon usually has classes with people from all around the world including classes of 30 school children. He has had to tailor the experience to match his audience, so depending on who is on the Zoom call, he will change the session to suit them. 

He started with the history of the penguin colony, which was extremely interesting. The first ever penguin to arrive on Boulders Beach came in 1982 , and people thought that he was lost. Another one turned up, which they thought was his wife, but then they kept coming! By 1990, there were around 15,000 African penguins on Boulders Beach which is incredible! Around 100,000 people a year visit Boulders Beach to photograph and observe the beautiful penguins. 

Unfortunately, the penguins are now classed as endangered as there are only 1690 penguins left in Cape Town as of 2021, and most the baby penguins are travelling to Namibia. As there are no more sharks around Cape Town to eat the seals, the seals are eating the penguins - which was quite upsetting to hear. However, Jon and his team have been chasing them away to save the African penguins. 

Jon made the art of penguin conservation class interactive by doing a quiz throughout (although there wasn’t much competition, as I was the only one). This was a fun idea to keep people engaged and I scored 2/3 questions right. Also, there was one slide where I found out my penguin name and then Jon changed our names on the Zoom call to our penguin names. 

If I had any questions regarding South Africa or penguins, Jon was able to answer all of them so the class taught me a lot, even the most common language they speak in South Africa which is Xhosa. Jon told me that 11 different languages are spoken in South Africa, which I thought was crazy. 

To finish the session, Jon showed me how to draw a penguin and I have to say, I was very proud of mine. After every session he would get a picture of everyone’s drawings with our name on and where we are from. He said that he was going to use them all at the Penguin Festival which takes place on the 25th April, which is World Penguin Day. 

Jon said that they are currently creating an app for people who visit the beach and see the penguins. Guests will be able to take a picture of the penguin and the app will tell you all about that penguin. Hopefully when I get the chance to go to Cape Town in the future, I can visit Boulders Beach and meet all the penguins in person. 

Thanks for reading!

I would just like to thank Jon for welcoming me to Cape Town virtually, and introducing me to the African penguins. The Art of Penguin Conservation Lesson is £15 and it lasted an hour and 45 minutes. I would say that this is definitely good value for money as I learnt a lot from Jon, and can hopefully meet him in Cape Town one day at Boulders Beach.