Cessna Penguin Cove to open soon

The Sedgwick County Zoo will be opening their new penguin exhibit called Cessna Penguin Cove on May 25 next week which includes 17 Humboldt penguins. This exhibit is outdoors since Humboldts are native to South America, primarily the coasts of Chili and Peru. Their new home will resemble their native land with a rocky backdrop and a desert terrain. There will, of course, be water for them to swim in – and lots of it. 42,000 gallons fill the pool where they can show off their swimming skills. This is the zoo’s first experience with exhibiting penguins and hopefully they will do a grand job.

“This is our first time showing off ocean-living birds. This is truly an oceanic species. Now that we’re showing that, we can talk about the problems with our oceans — like over-fishing, climate change — and it opens up more dialogue about it. We can say this affects penguins that you see right here.”

– Joe Barkowski, Curator of Birds, Sedgwick County Zoo

Fairy Penguins found dead in fishing nets

23 little blues were found dead this past weekend strangled in an abandoned fishing net intended for sharks. The Australian Coastguard found the net by chance just off the coast in Port Phillip Bay. If this was intentional, this is truly an evil act and those responsible should be held accountable. If this was an accident by way of forgetting to bring in a net, it is still negligent, irresponsible and, of course, tragic. I’m sure this was very upsetting for those who had to remove the bodies from the nets. The penguins are said to have probably been from the Phillip Island colony. The Australian Department of Sustainability and Environment is still investigating into whom is responsible for these little penguins’ deaths.

Unrelated Photo Credit: Andrew Matthews at flickr

Friday Video: Macaroni Penguins

David Attenborough looks at macaroni penguins. In this video, it’s breeding season and they can get fierce and fight when finding a mate.

Adelies going for a swim

Credit: blather at flickr

Rockhoppers at Aburatsubo Marine Park

Credit: alde at flickr

Friday Video: Penguins’ Rock

A one minute video featuring the new penguin exhibit that had its grand opening yesterday at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, TN.  Check out their penguin keeper’s blog for updates and stories from the penguins’ caretakers. It looks like their Macaronis and Gentoos are having a good time.

Penguin Waffles

I love penguins. I love waffles. Can’t I have both… at the same time? Apparently I can! Sunbeam makes a waffle iron called Woddles that molds the batter into cute little penguin shapes. That is brilliant if not absolute sheer genius!

Borrowing some pictures from another blog, I’d like to show what these little guys look like after they’ve been popped from the iron. They even have an indent where you can place a scoop of ice cream or maybe just a lake of syrup! Yum…

    

Woddles (WM3100)
Make fun penguin shaped waffles in minutes with Woddles. He even has an indent in his tummy to scoop the ice-cream in to. Yummy!
 
RRP $29.95
Features:
Creates penguin shaped waffles in minutes
Easy to clean, non-stick cooking plates
Safety latch
Neon ‘on’ light