Cape Town’s famed penguins which attract huge numbers of tourists could be extinct in little over a decade, conservationists have warned.

Numbers of African penguins are collapsing as fishing fleets compete for their sardine and anchovy diet and fish stocks move elsewhere due to climate change.

The species was last week officially upgraded to critically endangered status, one step away from a declaration that it had disappeared in the wild.

The Boulders Beach colony just outside Cape Town is one of the city’s tourist jewels and attracted close to a million visitors each year before Covid-19.

African penguins, Spheniscus demersus, are one of the smallest varieties and have also been known as “jackass” penguins, for their donkey-like bray.

Visitor numbers are steeply rising again, but the attraction is in danger of vanishing without action to safeguard the seabirds, campaigners say.