Wedding bells rang for one penguin couple at the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium ahead of Valentine's Day next week. Reuters
reports the aquarium started staging a penguin wedding on February 10
for visitors to begin marking the holiday of love. Organisers said penguins were selected for the event because of their monogamous nature. The two penguins, Xiaobai and Xiaoxue had been identified as a loving couple by aquarium staff. 'First
of all, Valentine's Day is coming up and we can feel this festival
approaching us. Our aquarium, looking from the viewpoint of our marine
species, decided to stage a wedding for this penguin couple. They are
one of the few in the animal kingdom that are monogamous, which is
similar to us, human beings. So we hope that through this event,
everyone will feel love is in the air,' said penguin keeper, Ding Ding.
The two Humboldt Penguins from the southern hemisphere were
ushered out of their enclosure and into their wedding ceremony in a
remote controlled car as visitors cheered them on. Staff then
placed a bouquet of flowers on their neck to represent the wedding
rings for their nuptial day with visitors taking snaps of the pair. Visitors
told Reuters they were happy to have shared this day with them. 'I am
very happy to have witnessed this penguin wedding. I wish them
everlasting love and I also wish for us to be happy and loving till the
end of our lives. Personally, I feel very good and very happy today,'
said 24-year-old Wang Guoying. The penguin wedding will be held
twice daily at the aquarium from February 11 to 14. There will be a
show each in the morning and afternoon daily for visitors, with an
extra one scheduled for the night of Valentine's Day.
The Penguin Camera is located on Torgersen Island (64°46’S, 64°04’W), off the coast of Anvers Island and less than a mile from Palmer Station. Torgersen Island is home to a colony of Adélie penguins numbering approximately 2,500. This camera is seasonal and operates primarily from October to February, the Adélie breeding season. The camera is solar-powered and may sometimes experience brief outages due to inclement weather. School classrooms and other educational demonstrations will often take control of the camera, moving it to gain better views of the colony.
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