Friday, January 16, 2015

Twycross Zoo hosts #Penguin Appreciation Month

  • By David Godsall

The month coincides with the arrival of a special statue of Monty the Penguin, who shot to fame in the recent John Lewis Christmas adverts.

Penguin
Penguin
PENGUIN Awareness Day is celebrated annually on January 20 and throughout the month, Twycross Zoo is hosting a number of penguin-inspired activities to teach its visitors more about these birds and the threats they face in the wild.

The month coincides with the arrival of a special statue of Monty the Penguin, who shot to fame in the recent John Lewis Christmas adverts.

There are some great family-friendly penguin-themed activities taking place around the zoo during January including a penguin zoo trail and an obstacle course which visitors can tackle while protecting their own eggs. The statue of Monty, which was donated by John Lewis in Leicester, will be on display for fans to take selfies with him. Penguin Parade takes place daily at 12.30pm and 3.30pm when the zoo’s education rangers give talks to visitors while the birds are fed. The penguins will also receive enrichment activities each weekend such as exploring a bubble machine in Penguin Lagoon.

Twycross Zoo has a group of 19 Humboldt penguins which are classified as a vulnerable species in the wild where they live in coastal Chile and Peru in South America. The zoo’s penguins all have names inspired by the sea including Coral, Shrimp and Fin, and they can be identified by their individual colour coded arm bands.

Dr Charlotte Macdonald, Director of Life Sciences says, “Our penguins are very popular with visitors at Twycross Zoo and they each have unique personalities which are fascinating to observe. Penguins are such an iconic species and as a zoo we have an important role to educate people about them and their conservation. Although they are hugely popular in adverts and children’s films, people often forget that a lot of penguin species are threatened in the wild and we hope that our penguin appreciation month will give people a better understanding of the species and the pressures they face.”

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