Because penguins evolved to retain heat in frigid water, they can easily overheat on land.Typically, penguins leave their nests regularly to cool off in the sea, but without proper burrows, this leaves their eggs unprotected.“We’ve now put this entire species at risk of extinction, essentially because of human exploitation and greed,” Welman says.Fortunately, a team of researchers and conservationists working under the banner of the African Penguin Nest Project seems to have hit on a solution.Over the past four years, the team has designed and deployed more than 1,500 handmade ceramic nest boxes in five penguin colonies including Bird Island, located in Algoa Bay, an area that is home to nearly half of the world’s remaining African penguins."