SKOKIE, Ill. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Students at Fairview South Middle School in Skokie have raised more than $2,500 to help save endangered African penguins.
The students raised the money by selling their own handmade bracelets, bookmarks and 3D-printed pencil holders, key chains, and magnets.
Kevin Graham, bird supervisor at the Dallas Zoo and coordinator of the Saving African Penguin Nest Project told 7th graders at Fairview South over Zoom the artificial nests make a significant difference in the population.
“There’s about a 57 percent chance that a chick is sucessfully raised if they nest out in the open in the surface nests. The chances about 6 percent that they successfully raise a chick,” he said.
Graham and lead zoologist Lyndsey Jones traveled to South Africa in January. She explained that the ceramic-coated nests are needed now that the penguin’s usual nesting material – guano – is gone.
“Guano is actually just the scientific name for poop, but what happened …