The Beginning
The first white, domed artificial nests began taking shape in January 2019 at a small facility in Cape Saint Francis, South Africa. More than 45 tons of raw materials and tools were loaded into the cement building: including rolls of thick gray fabric, bags of ceramic powder, mixing drills, fiberglass forms to serve as molds for the two-piece nests.
Each day, a maximum of twenty nests are painstakingly crafted under the watchful eye of Trudi Malan of Dyer Island Conservation Trust. That doesn’t sound like a lot – until you realize they’re made completely by hand, requiring a very specific formulation of products and a step-by-step process that has to be followed in an exact order.
The young workers, all local, have become efficient and skilled at building the nests. The work teaches them new skills and brings money to support their families. But it's become more than just a job – they understand that this ambitious project will improve the lives of an iconic African species. The young men are proud of the role they play, creating nests for birds that desperately need help and potentially saving them from extinction.
Once the pieces of slurry-filled fabric are all securely in place on the molds, they must cure for at least 24 hours until further work can be done. The next day, the nests are gently pried from the molds and moved into a drying area, where they’ll cure for another 48 hours.
Any additional work attempted during this time could damage the nest, and would be nearly impossible to repair.
Result
A tremendous amount of research and development went into the prototype nests. Upscaling this process to build nests in sufficient quantity to meet the needs of all colonies presented a new challenge.
After 72 hours, a pattern for ventilation holes is traced onto the nests, and the holes are drilled. The pattern, designed to vent the nest on hot days, is critical to regulate the temperature inside the nest and let it mimic the penguins’ natural guano burrows.
The finished nests don’t look all that complicated, but a tremendous amount of science and research went into developing them: materials research; design research; thermal venting design; multiple extensive rounds of testing; the handmade construction of the finished product, and the installation into the breeding colonies.
It’s a unique and difficult challenge, re-creating the perfection of Mother Nature, but we’re confident we’ve come as close as possible.
And it’s thanks to the dedication of members from Dyer Island Conservation Trust, Pan-African Association of Zoos and Aquaria, the Dallas Zoo/AZA SAFE, and especially the people and organizations that believe these new homes are one of the keys to keeping endangered penguins from disappearing from the earth in our lifetimes.
What's Next?
