Africa’s only indigenous penguin, the African or jackass penguin (Spheniscus demersus) is found along the southwestern coastal regions of southern Africa and on offshore islands. Robben Island was originally called Penguin Island by English sailors, but was renamed (from the Dutch word for seal) by the Dutch, who valued seals for their oil. Both species were plentiful on the island when European ships began to call there. However, by the nineteenth century neither penguins nor seals were to be found on Robben Island, but in the early 1980s the penguins began to return, and there is now a sizeable colony there. On the mainland, a penguin colony can be found at Boulders beach.

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