Each
year, the zoo has around 1.6m visitors and now they will get to explore
and see these amazing animals close up in this new Channel 4 series.
The Secret Life of the Zoo
will take viewers on a journey, capturing in intimate detail both the
remarkable behaviour of the animals and their close relationships with
their keepers, using a range of filming techniques.
From
a giraffe baby dropping six feet through the air as it’s born, to
tigers moving house and a pregnant viper being x-rayed, the series will
present these spectacular rites of passage in the lives of rare animals
as never before.
So who are the stars of the zoo?
Rudd and Spike the Penguins
Rudd is an elderly South American humboldt penguin. Humboldt
Penguins are social animals, living in relatively large colonies of
closely spaced burrows.
Usually penguins enjoy an array of
partners but many years ago Rudd settled down with fellow penguin Spike
at Chester Zoo. The two have been a happy couple for several years. In
his old age, Rudd receives medication each day with tablets delivered at
feeding time.
Spike and Rudd are the oldest members of Chester
Zoo’s Humboldt Penguin colony, which consists of about fifty penguins,
part of a European Endangered Species Breeding Programme.
The colony has an excellent breeding record and many of the youngsters have gone on to join breeding groups in other zoos.
Chester
Zoo’s penguin enclosure has an underwater viewing area where you can
see our Humboldt Penguins ‘fly’ through the water at speeds of up to
25mph.
No comments:
Post a Comment