A swarm of bees has killed 63 endangered African penguins on a beach outside Cape Town (Pic. Courtesy Twitter/@Discovery)
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A swarm of bees has killed 63 endangered African penguins on a beach outside Cape Town, according to an AFP report .</p>
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The protected birds were found dead in a small town near Cape Town home to a colony of penguins, and post-mortems revealed that all the penguins had multiple bee stings.&nbsp;</p>
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&ldquo;After tests, we found bee stings around the penguins&rsquo; eyes,&rdquo; the report cited David Roberts a veterinarian of Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) as saying.</p>
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&ldquo;There were also dead bees on the scene,&rdquo; he told AFP by telephone.</p>
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&ldquo;This is a very rare occurrence,&rdquo; he added.</p>
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The area is a national park and the Cape honeybees are part of the ecosystem.</p>
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South African National Parks said samples had also been sent for disease and toxicology testing.</p>
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&ldquo;There were no external physical injuries found on any of the birds,&rdquo; a parks statement said.</p>
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Penguins cannot fly but they fulfil all the biological requirements to be classified as birds &ndash; they have feathers, they lay eggs and they&#39;re warm-blooded. There are also other flightless birds&nbsp; like emus, ostriches and cassowaries.</p>
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SANCCOB said they would keep a &quot;watchful eye&quot; on the birds.</p>
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&quot;Our rangers and SANParks will monitor the nests in the area as some of these birds would have had eggs and chicks,&quot; the organisation said in a statement on its social media.</p>
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&quot;One partner often can&#39;t supply sufficient food or leave the chicks alone.&quot;</p>
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The organisation said numbers of the penguins were dwindling and the species could be extinct by 2035.</p>
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African penguins, which inhabit the coast and islands of southern Africa, are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature&rsquo;s red list.</p>
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<strong>Also read: <a href="https://www.indianarrative.com/science-news/over-dolphins-slaughtered-in-denmark-in-a-gory-hunt-114843.html">Over 1,400 dolphins slaughtered in Denmark in a gory hunt</a></strong></p>
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