Tenikwa Wildlife Awareness Centre encourages members of our local disadvantaged communities to come through the centre and learn about South African wildlife and our environment.  We often find that even transport to get to the centre is unaffordable.  We are raising funds to purchase a vehicle to collect children from disadvantaged communities to bring them to Tenikwa to teach them about the animals and what is happening to their habitat.  When we started our Rehabilitation Centre, we realized that through rehabilitation, we can make a difference to the lives of individual animals, and certainly in the penguin case, a difference to the species, but through education and awareness, we really have the ability to impact on a much greater scale, and we have focused much of our efforts in the last two years on this area.

One of our newer projects, the Penguin Splash Pool has been used to rehabilitate a variety of marine species already.  Each year, Tenikwa receives between 40-60 African Penguins for rehabilitation.  These penguins come ashore at various beaches along the Garden Route. Often suffering from malaria, babesia and generally in a weakened, debilitated state, the penguins are brought to Tenikwa for stabilisation.  Each penguin is checked thoroughly, dewormed and their blood tested for parasites.  After a few days care in our wildlife hospital, the penguins become more perky and once our vet has given it the "All Clear", it is time to introduce the penguin to our Penguin Splash Pool - our marine rehabilitation section.

The penguins love to swim and also stand on the rocks which have been placed by the water's edge.  Swimming is natural for a penguin, but sometimes they need to be forced to swim to encourage water-proofing of their feathers, drinking and cleaning.

Our mural which covers the walls of the enclosure, depicts the story of penguins, from dangers and threats they face in the ocean, to the process of rehabilitation and release.  Leon Steiner designed the mural, and it is is only a start.  We hope to add much, much more to it, as it becomes a tool to increase awareness about the plummeting population of African Penguins.

Since the marine area has been operational, it has already been home to Cape Fur Seals, Egrets, Cormorants, Gannets, Terns, Seagulls, Penguins and an Oyster Catcher Chick, so it is an enclosure that is used on a daily basis by the rehabilitation centre.

Since installing the pool, we have really battled to keep the water in good condition.  After  months of battling, we have come across an environment friendly pool system called Eco Aqua Magic.  Initial tests look very good, and we hope we have finally discovered the solution to keeping the water quality good whilst not hammering the environment at the same time.

A species starting to come under the spotlight is the Leopard, where research is showing a decline in over 30% in the last 30 years. Statistics like these are particularly concerning for a species that up until recently, has been able to hold its own, due to its ability to adapt to a changing landscape.

Leopards come under fire for livestock predation.  However, research through the Landmark Foundation has shown that often the resident leopard is blamed for the kill whilst being completely innocent. The Landmark Foundation works with farmers to correctly identify the cause of the predation and encourage non-lethal methods of predator management, as well as a shift back to stock protection, moving the focus off the predator and back to the livestock.