What Happens When You Give Some Penguins An iPad?

Penguin Chicks!

Cool Hunting Video: Penguin Enrichment from Cool Hunting on Vimeo.

Turns out that chasing pixelated prey is great for penguins' health—and possibly their sex drives.

By KC Ifeanyi

 

We know a little iPad time can be beneficial for children. Turns out the same is seemingly true for penguins.

Cool Hunting visited Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif., after learning that the staff was using technology in an interesting way with with their Magellanic penguins. As aviculturist Sara Mandel explains, she found the iPad app Game for Cats worked extremely well with penguins during their enrichment sessions, a routine to keep the penguins in peak physical condition. And being in peak physical condition apparently makes them more prone to procreate. "[Penguins] Newsom and Jeremy became obsessed with it," Mandel says of the iPad. "And that was actually the year that [a nearby penguin] was born, so I must have done something right because we got Anderson and Heidi out of it."

The iPad screen looks a little worse for wear, but the app does seem to be helping—and it's adorable to watch. Keep on pecking, little guys.

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