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‘Adopt a Penguin Egg’ Easter Campaign Helps Endangered African Birds

A penguin carer feeds a chick at South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds rehabilitation center, where the center has been incubating over 200 eggs of the endangered African penguin that were rescued from two penguin colonies, since the start of the year and they are soliciting donations by inviting people to "adopt an egg", in Cape Town, South Africa, March 27, 2024. (Reuters)
A penguin carer feeds a chick at South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds rehabilitation center, where the center has been incubating over 200 eggs of the endangered African penguin that were rescued from two penguin colonies, since the start of the year and they are soliciting donations by inviting people to "adopt an egg", in Cape Town, South Africa, March 27, 2024. (Reuters)
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‘Adopt a Penguin Egg’ Easter Campaign Helps Endangered African Birds

A penguin carer feeds a chick at South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds rehabilitation center, where the center has been incubating over 200 eggs of the endangered African penguin that were rescued from two penguin colonies, since the start of the year and they are soliciting donations by inviting people to "adopt an egg", in Cape Town, South Africa, March 27, 2024. (Reuters)
A penguin carer feeds a chick at South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds rehabilitation center, where the center has been incubating over 200 eggs of the endangered African penguin that were rescued from two penguin colonies, since the start of the year and they are soliciting donations by inviting people to "adopt an egg", in Cape Town, South Africa, March 27, 2024. (Reuters)

Bored of buying eggs made of chocolate and wrapped in foil with predictable bunny motifs? This Easter in South Africa you could instead spend your cash an egg that will hatch a live penguin.

But these ones are not for taking home.

Since the start of the year, a South African conservation group has been incubating over 200 eggs of the endangered African penguin that were previously rescued from two colonies.

The Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) is soliciting donations to meet the cost of incubating them by inviting people to "adopt an egg."

The African penguin -- the only species that breeds on the continent, and which is also found in Namibia -- was once South Africa's most abundant seabird.

No longer. The population has plunged to less than 10,000 breeding pairs in 2024, according to SANCCOB resources manager, Ronnis Daniels, meaning there is only 1% left of the 1 million that were in existence a century earlier.

"At the current trajectory, which is an 8% loss every year, we are looking at extinction by 2035," she told Reuters. "There won't be enough (for) the wild population to save itself."

Threats to the birds are legion, but the main culprit is commercial fishing, which has ravaged stocks of sardines and anchovies that the penguins depend on to live.

"That would be the top of the list," Daniels said. "The sad part is that fish is exported mostly as fishmeal."

Other threats include all the noise and pollution from the shipping routes around South Africa, especially when the ships stop to refuel in Algoa bay, she said.

On one day, volunteer Nicky Shadbolt was walking along an enclosure for the downy baby penguins.

"Over this time, when everybody is also thinking about chocolates and fluffy bunnies, we would like you ... to adopt a penguin egg," she said, punctuated by baby penguin squeaks.

"It is really expensive for us to raise that little penguin from egg or all the way to maturity," she added, a process that takes four months until they are released back into the wild.

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Varieties

Models with Down Syndrome in Romania Strike a Pose for World Down Syndrome Day

Antonia Voicu laughs before the SEEN Anonymous Seamstresses Gala, an event organised by the Down Plus Bucharest, an NGO supporting youngsters with Down Syndrome and other intellectual disabilities, in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, ahead of the World Down Syndrome Day, on March 21. (AP)
Antonia Voicu laughs before the SEEN Anonymous Seamstresses Gala, an event organised by the Down Plus Bucharest, an NGO supporting youngsters with Down Syndrome and other intellectual disabilities, in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, ahead of the World Down Syndrome Day, on March 21. (AP)
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Models with Down Syndrome in Romania Strike a Pose for World Down Syndrome Day

Antonia Voicu laughs before the SEEN Anonymous Seamstresses Gala, an event organised by the Down Plus Bucharest, an NGO supporting youngsters with Down Syndrome and other intellectual disabilities, in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, ahead of the World Down Syndrome Day, on March 21. (AP)
Antonia Voicu laughs before the SEEN Anonymous Seamstresses Gala, an event organised by the Down Plus Bucharest, an NGO supporting youngsters with Down Syndrome and other intellectual disabilities, in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, ahead of the World Down Syndrome Day, on March 21. (AP)

Dozens of models with Down syndrome strutted down a catwalk at a fashion show in Romania’s capital for an evening celebrating style, “atypical beauty” and courage to mark World Down Syndrome Day.

The SEEN Anonymous Seamstresses Gala in Bucharest brought together designers from across the country, who created garments “with great kindness, care and creativity” for young people with Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities.

Georgeta Bucur, the president of Down Plus Association Bucharest, which organized the event held on Wednesday at the Romexpo center, said 50 seamstresses each created a costume for a youngster they had never met.

“The costumes were created without anyone trying them on," she said. “But the most important thing is that the people gathered together again. This event is really special ... it’s the most beautiful thing that could happen.”

For 19-year-old Antonia Voicu, who wore a puffy green netted dress and a crown of red roses, taking the stage was like a dream come true.

“I feel like I’m always fashionable, and I like to strike a pose, so I like to do like this,” she said, before stepping on the runway. “I’m not nervous at all.”

Antonia’s caretaker, Diana Negres, said the event was “a big step” for Antonia, who had always dreamed of “being a star” parading on stage. “This event gives her exactly this,” she said. “This is her first time, we did no preparation at all, so everything will be spontaneous.”

Cristina Bucur, a seamstress and one of the organizers, said the idea for the fashion show came to her because she has a child with a disability.

"I wanted the other children to see what it’s like to wear a costume during a fashion show, what it’s like to be cheered on stage,” she said. “They enjoy it enormously because they see that someone looks at them, that someone does something for them.”

In Romania, about 12,000 people have Down syndrome, and over 6 million worldwide, according to the Romania Down Syndrome Federation. In 2022, the Eastern European country reported that a person with Down syndrome was born per 847 births.

“On stage, us children go on a parade, and today I’m dressed in a nice dress and try to do some modeling,” said nine-year-old Marusika Burlaca, who took to the stage wearing a pink dress studded with little pearls after having her hair done up.

“Maybe they get a bit nervous at times, it’s the emotions, but they really like to be the center of attention,” said Larisa Bucur, one of the organizers. “We know that they want to be in the spotlight. I think it’s a very good opportunity for them.”

World Down Syndrome Day celebrates the lives of people with Down syndrome to make sure they have equal freedoms and opportunities, and to raise awareness. In 2011, the United Nations General Assembly declared March 21 as the official day of observation.

This year’s theme is combating loneliness, which the World Down Syndrome Day website says can have an outsized impact on people living with Down syndrome.

“Everyone feels lonely sometimes,” it states. “But for many people with Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities, loneliness is a more common and painful experience.”

Varieties

Vanishing Glacier on Germany's Highest Peak Prompts Ski Lift Demolition

An aerial view taken with a drone shows the Schneefernerkopf ski lift prior to its demolition at the Zugspitze ski resort near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Philipp Guelland / AFP)
An aerial view taken with a drone shows the Schneefernerkopf ski lift prior to its demolition at the Zugspitze ski resort near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Philipp Guelland / AFP)
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Vanishing Glacier on Germany's Highest Peak Prompts Ski Lift Demolition

An aerial view taken with a drone shows the Schneefernerkopf ski lift prior to its demolition at the Zugspitze ski resort near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Philipp Guelland / AFP)
An aerial view taken with a drone shows the Schneefernerkopf ski lift prior to its demolition at the Zugspitze ski resort near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Philipp Guelland / AFP)

Vanishing glaciers atop Germany's highest mountain prompted the demolition of a ski lift Friday, as global warming reshapes the Alps.

A ski slope that for decades ran down the Schneeferner glacier on the Zugspitze has melted away, leading operator Bayerische Zugspitzbahn Bergbahn AG to begin dismantling the lift after more than 50 years of service.

"The glaciers in Bavaria will inevitably melt away, as they can no longer survive in the face of climate change," Christoph Mayer, a glaciologist at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, told AFP.

High-tension cables anchoring the existing ski lift will be cut with blasting charges on Friday evening, said the operator's spokeswoman Laura Schaper.

The lift's pylons, which are built on the ice, will fall once the cables have been severed, she said near the glacier on Friday.

The peak of Zugspitze, which stands at 2,962 meters (9,700 feet), is located in the Wetterstein massif along Germany's border with Austria.

"The ice is receding, the terrain and the lift have changed drastically," Schaper said. "The slope has become significantly steeper, and for that reason it's no longer technically feasible to keep operating the lift."

New data on the remaining glaciers in the Bavarian Alps released Thursday found that the glaciers have receded by more than a quarter just between 2023 and 2025, losing around one million cubic meters of ice over only two years.

Wilfried Hagg, a geologist at the Munich University of Applied Sciences who worked on the study alongside Mayer, told AFP that climate change is entirely to blame.

Hagg told AFP that there's "absolutely no" chance of saving any of Germany's remaining glaciers.

There are four remaining glaciers in Bavaria: the northern part of the Schneeferne and the Hoellentalferner, which is also located on the Zugspitze.

Two others are both located on the Berchtesgarden massif: the Wazmann, at 2,713 meters, and Blaueis at 2,607 meters.

Those glaciers "are in very bad shape," Hagg said, with the two on Berchtesgarden "likely to disappear completely very soon -- this year or next".

Varieties

NASA Hauls Repaired Moon Rocket from Hangar Back to Pad for Early April Launch

NASA's Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft are seen at Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP)
NASA's Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft are seen at Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP)
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NASA Hauls Repaired Moon Rocket from Hangar Back to Pad for Early April Launch

NASA's Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft are seen at Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP)
NASA's Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft are seen at Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP)

For the second time this year, NASA moved its moon rocket from the hangar out toward the pad Friday in hopes of launching four astronauts on a lunar fly-around next month.

If the latest repairs work and everything else goes NASA's way, the Space Launch System could blast off as early as April 1 from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. The Artemis II crew went into quarantine this week in Houston.

The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket began the slow 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) trek in the middle of the night, transported atop a massive crawler used since the 1960s Apollo era. The trip was held up for several hours by high wind but completed by midday, 11 hours after it began.

The three Americans and one Canadian will zip around the moon in their capsule and then come straight home without stopping. Their mission should have been completed by now, but hydrogen fuel leaks and clogged helium lines forced two months of delay, The Associated Press reported.

While technicians plugged the leaks at the pad, the helium issue could only be fixed in the Vehicle Assembly Building, forcing NASA to roll the rocket back at the end of February.

The last time NASA sent astronauts to the moon was during Apollo 17 in 1972. The new Artemis program aims for a two-person landing in 2028.