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The African Penguin  also known as the Black-footed Penguin is a species of penguin, confined to southern African waters. It is known as Brilpikkewyn in Afrikaans, Inguza or Unombombiya in Xhosa, Manchot Du Cap in French and Pingüino Del Cabo in Spanish. It is also widely known as the "Jackass" Penguin for its donkey-like bray, although several species of South American penguins produce the same sound.

African Penguins grow to 68–70 cm  tall and weigh between 2 and 5 kg . They have a black stripe and black spots on the chest, the pattern of spots being unique for every penguin, like human fingerprints. They have pink glands above their eyes, which are used for thermoregulation. The hotter the penguin gets, the more blood is sent to these glands so it may be cooled by the surrounding air, thus making the glands more pink.  Their distinctive black and white colouring is a vital form of camouflage– white for underwater predators looking upwards and black for predators looking down onto the dark water. This is called countershading.
The African Penguin is found on the south-western coast of Africa, living in colonies on 24 islands between Namibia and Algoa Bay, near Port Elizabeth, South Africa. It is the only penguin species that breeds in Africa and its presence gave name to the Penguin Islands.

Boulders Beach is a tourist attraction, for the beach, swimming and the penguins. The penguins will allow people to approach them as close as a meter.
African Penguins forage in the open sea, where they pursue  pilchards and anchovies , and  squid and small crustaceans A penguin may consume up to 540 grams of prey every day, but this may increase to over 1 kg when raising older chicks.

The average lifespan of an African Penguin is 10 to 27 years in the wild.
Of the 1.5-million African Penguin population estimated in 1910, only some 10% remained at the end of the 20th-century. African penguin populations, which breed in Namibia and South Africa, have declined by 95 percent since preindustrial times.
Commercial fisheries have forced these penguins to search for prey farther off shore, as well as making them eat less nutritious prey, since