63 African penguins from the Boulders penguin colony died this week, presumably after they were attacked by a swarm of bees.

SANParks says the post-mortems show that all the penguins had several bee stings and dead bees were found at the site where the birds died.

The penguins died between Thursday and Friday – SANParks described it as an unusual event that they will investigate further.

A dead penguin was also found on Fish Hoek beach yesterday which the SANCCOB vet has confirmed also had multiple bee stings. However, samples are still being tested for other toxicity possibilities and diseases to rule out any other potential cause.

According to Dr Alison Kock – SANParks Marine Biologist says, “we are grateful to all our conservation partners, especially SANCCOB and the City of Cape Town, for assisting us in investigating this unusual event. No more dead African penguins were found on site today, and we will continue to monitor the situation.”