Last week as part of our vacation, we took a trip to the Newport Aquarium and Cincinnati Zoo. And of course, I spent a lot of quality time watching the penguins and shooting some photographs of them. See below for a brief about the trip and a slew of pictures.
Unhappy feet on a treadmill?
Scientific research or unusual treatment? Scientists from Birmingham University are researching more on the subject of global warming. It’s been widely hypothesized that penguins are one of the keys to detecting this. These king penguins live in the sub-Antarctic islands and the scientists believe that the fish the penguins eat will move further south to colder waters due to the ocean’s increasing temperature. The scientists have fitted 50 of these penguins with monitors that keep track of different things such as their heart rate, location, surrounding pressure (to track water depth), and the temperature at the back of its throat (to signal when the bird has swallowed a fish).
With all scientific research, a control environment is needed. To do this, 10 penguins were placed on treadmills so their heart rates and breathing rate could be measured. This does make sense as they’re just trying find a baseline for their research. This doesn’t sound too bad at first except for the fact that the treadmills are placed within a clear and sealed plastic box. Why sealed? They are also measuring the amount of oxygen the penguins are using up. That’s what strikes me as a tad unusual about this research. I would think that placing an animal inside an airtight container would be classified as cruel.
The birds were, of course, released back into the wild but I’m sure their stay couldn’t have been that pleasant. I’m sure this portion of the control research could have been done in the wild although it probably would have taken a longer time to get the data they wanted. I would also think that with science, patience is key. Overall, I’m fine with the monitors but I think the treadmill idea could have been avoided. A video of one of the penguins during this research after the cut.
No stolen penguins in KY
Lately I’ve been seeing some referrer hits from search engines with keywords including “baby penguin stolen newport ky.” I’m just going to let those people who are wondering where the stolen baby penguin from Newport, Kentucky, is – no where. As far as penguin snatchings, you are probably looking for articles regarding the baby penguin that was stolen from the Amazon World Zoo on the Isle of Wight which is near Newport, Britain. This happened back in December of 2005 soon after March of the Penguins debuted in theaters. Sadly, the penguin was never found and even if it was released into the sea as purported, it was too young to survive on its own as it needed its parents to feed it.
Alternatively, there are urban legends still going around about children sneaking penguins home in their backpacks from trips to zoos, aquariums, and theme parks. According to Snopes, these myths are just that. These have been going around since the early 1990’s. I seriously doubt that a child could get into the enclosures in the first place. Most places I’ve seen have penguins in another room that is climate controlled and getting into that would be thwarted by other security measures, I’m sure. Even if a penguin was snatched and handled improperly, it would most certainly bite, beat, and/or scratch whomever it may be. Very doubtful one could be stuffed into a backpack, I’d say.
Sorry, guys, but no stolen penguins in Kentucky. I’m sure the folks at the Newport Aquarium count them everyday!
Friday Video: Pingu Dance Rap
In 1989, David Hasselhoff released (in Switzerland only) the single “Pingu Dance”, a rap song based on the Pingu shorts and featuring a number of samples of Pinguish. A portion of this song is used as the theme to Pingu on the PBS Kids Sprout channel in the United States. ~Wikipedia
Penguin Geek 