Ready ... Set ... Waddle!

March of the Penguins

Ready ... Set ... Waddle!

In what's become an annual tradition at the San Francisco Zoo, four adolescent Magellanic penguins will graduate Wednesday from the equivalent of avian finishing school with a parade from their classroom to the 54-member penguin colony on Penguin Island.

Born earlier this year, the three adolescent females and one young male will become the newest members of the largest, most prolific Magellanic penguin colony in captivity.

During their summer stay at the zoo's Avian Conservation Center, the baby penguins learned to swim, eat herring from keepers' hands and socialize with people.

The Bay Area climate is similiar to their natural habitat, along the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Argentina and Chile. Magellanic penguins can swim up to 25 miles per hour and eat about a pound of fish a day. They can live up to 25 years.

Since the San Francisco Zoo acquired Magellanic penguins in 1984, the colony has produced 180 chicks.

Zookeepers feed the penguins and talk with the public daily at 2:30 p.m.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?entry_id=45237#ixzz0NyF2vf87

Source:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?entry_id=45237