Thursday, 23 Jun 2011
And they're also getting a lot of attention at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo.
That could be because one of the penguins Hugh, has a very unique talent. Hugh is a painting penguin.
Stacy Houser trains him. "We do one color at a time. So the colors don't blend together and you get a layering effect. It looks nicer," said Houser.
In between his serendipitous strokes, Hugh gets a few gentle strokes from Houser and he responds affectionately.
"He brays... like a donkey. So we give him positive reinforcement, " said Houser. "Most penguins are not this friendly but he's special. He's an African-black footed penguin. They're found on the coast of South Africa. They're a warm weather penguin."
We wanted to interpret Hugh's painting so we talked with a few people. One zoo guest said it looked like a duck. A zoo employee said it looked like a field of tulips that got run over by a tractor.
All kidding aside, even though Hugh's only been doing this for a few months he's already an accomplished artist.
"We auction off the paintings to help the animals at the zoo. His painting went for $80."
So don't be surprised if you see a penguin kind of tap dancing in paint. It's probably just Hugh getting ready for his next masterpiece.
"I personally think he's one of the more intelligent birds but I may be biased," said Houser.
Source
No comments:
Post a Comment