Isla Earth Radio

Sometimes, creating a preserve can help endangered species fast, like South Africa's Cape penguins. Until recently, this endangered bird, and the only African penguin, had a hard time finding food. That's because South Africa's once abundant sardine and anchovy populations had declined dramatically due to over-fishing. That forced the penguins to search farther for food, often causing exhaustion and leading to death. In fact, in just eight years, their numbers dropped 60 percent. But in 2008 the South African government, along with scientists and the South African fishing industry, decided to give the birds a hand. They fitted 91 penguins in two colonies with tracking devices to record their every move. Then after measuring baseline behavior they closed fishing in a twelve and a half mile radius around one of the colonies. Three months after the closure, the scientists described the results as "striking." Birds from the colony still open to fishing showed no changes. But bird