There are some new cuties in town, and we’re not talking about CofC freshmen. Four Magellanic penguins have arrived to stay (for a while) at the South Carolina Aquarium and will be ready to meet the public this Saturday, March 21. The penguins’ home here in Charleston, entitled “Penguin Planet,” is a small habitat and tank where the four male warm-water penguins can be seen swimming and bobbing happily around.
The penguins flew into Charleston from their old home at Sea World in San Diego late February and have spent the past few weeks getting nicely acclimated.
A nearly threatened species, the Magellanic penguins are relatively small, ranging from 24-28 inches tall, and average around 8-11 lbs. Though they normally eat a variety of small fish and invertebrates, their plats des jours at the aquarium consist of capelin and herring. They are native to the Falkland Islands off the coast of Chile and Argentina and usually can be found in colonies.
That being said, even though two of the four new residents of Penguin Planet are brothers, we’re sure they are missing their families. They seem to love attention though, so go pay them some the next time you visit the aquarium. You won’t be able to peel yourself away from the glass. —Hadley Lyman
PS--the newbies also have a cam for viewing. You'll need Microsoft Silverlight, but otherwise, you get a neat little view of some happy pengies.
http://www.scaquarium.org/PenguinPlanet/PenguinCamTest.html
Photos by Joshua Curry.
Story courtesy of the Charleston City Paper @
http://calendar.ccpblogs.com/2009/03/18/hello-penguins/
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