New Vancouver Aquarium penguin exhibit given the bird by animal rights activist

By John Colebourn, 

The Province  

May 1, 2012

 

 A 1995 photo of Mike MacIntosh of the Stanley Park Zoo sitting inside the old Humboldt penguin exhibit. The exhibit and the rest of the zoo was closed down in 1996. Vancouver Aquarium have announced a new exhibit will open in May featuring African penguins.

Photograph by: Stuart Davis , PNG File Photo

Some new birds in town haveanimal activists hopping mad.
The Vancouver Aquarium’s African penguin exhibit opens on May 18, but animal-rights activist Annelise Sorg is deeply opposed.
“Why are they bringing in African penguins?” asked Sorg of the group No Whales in Captivity.
“They should be left in the wild and not put in captivity.”
Sorg called for a boycott of the aquarium.

“This is not education and not conservation,” she said. “They are keeping these animals to make money.”
But a notice on the Vancouver Aquarium website says the penguins were bred in captivity as a means of saving the species.

“African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) are endangered. North American zoos and aquariums, including the Vancouver Aquarium, are helping to save them. For example, all the new penguins at the Vancouver Aquarium are not from South Africa, but have instead been bred at another aquarium through the Species Survival Plan program of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.”
The aquarium’s blurb invites people to learn about penguins and how the flightless birds haveadapted to life at sea.

“Look for distinctive African penguin behaviours. Is it preening, catching a breeze, resting or giving you the stare?”
The web notice also asks for volunteers to help with the exhibit.

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