Some Santa Barbara filmmakers have created a film about a little known, endangered species of penguins.
They are looking at African penguins, at home on an island off the coast of South Africa.
Stephanie Arne says the penguins are about 18 inches tall, and weigh six to ten pounds. She says they are facing a huge crisis which threatens the species.
Penguins living on Bird Island used mountains of guano to create nests protecting them from the sun, and giving them a safe place to nest while avoiding predators.
People discovered the guano made excellent fertilizer, and over the decades stripped it from the islands. As a result of the loss of guano which the penguins would use to make little nests protecting them from predators, and the sun, their numbers have dropped radically, by some 99%.
Arne wanted to help. She’s one of the hosts of the iconic “Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom” television series. So, she and her husband, filmmaker Tim Davison, went to South Africa to help in an effort to deploy some specially designed artificial nests, and document the effort.
Arne says the response from the penguins was remarkable. They literally ran to claim the artificial nests.
She says it shows that humans can sometimes undo some of the environmental damage they’ve caused. The filmmaker says there’s a lot more work which needs to be done on Bird Island. She says while hundreds of the nests have been placed on the island, they need an estimated 5000.
“Saving Penguins” will make its world premiere at the Santa Barbara Zoo Tuesday night. The event is free. It begins at 6 p.m. There will also be some art created by filmmaker Tim Davison on sale which will help benefit the project.
