Destitute penguins get fibreglass igloos

South African officials are building a housing development of fibreglass igloos for a colony of endangered penguins, hoping to replicate natural nesting grounds damaged by environmental degradation.

The penguin housing colony on Dyer Island near Cape Town is seen as last ditch effort to save the colony, which has dwindled to just 5,000 animals from 25,000 in the 1970s, officials said.



Dyer Island, a bleak islet popular with shark spotting tours, was once rich in nutrient-rich guano - bird feces - but has seen the resource stripped by commercial enterprises who sell it as fertilizer.

That proved bad news for the African penguins - formerly known as Jackass penguins - which rely on guano to nest their eggs, hide from predators and provide a rare spot of shade on an island almost devoid of trees and bushes.

Conservationists now plan to construct up to 2,000 artificial burrows on the island, hoping the fibreglass igloos will persuade more penguins to procreate.