At least 63 endangered African penguins were killed by a swarm of bees last week on the beach at Boulders, a popular tourist destination south of Cape Town in South Africa, according to media reports.
The area is a national park and the Cape honey bees are part of the ecosystem.
“After tests, we found bee stings around the penguins’ eyes,” a clinical veterinarian David Roberts was quoted as saying by Aljazeera.
“This is a very rare occurrence. We do not expect it to happen often, it’s a fluke. There were also dead bees on the scene.”
The South African National Parks said in a statement that there were no external physical injuries found on any of the birds.
Authorities are searching for the hive to establish the cause of the bee attack.
The African penguins breed in South Africa and neighbouring Namibia.
The population of the penguins living in South Africa has dropped by 73 percent to 10,400 pairs over the years.
Namibia has 4,300 penguin pairs, according to the Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds in Southern Africa.
