By Vimita Mohandas | Posted: 18 November 2010
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SINGAPORE : Come early December, visitors to Jurong Bird Park can feast their eyes on the first outdoor enclosure featuring African Penguins.
10 of them were moved from the Singapore Zoo to their new wildlife habitat early Thursday morning, before the weather got too warm for them to make the journey.
The African penguin, which is an endangered species, grows up to 70 cm and weighs two to five kilogrammes.
At the new enclosure dubbed the Penguin Coast, the penguins aged between one and six, will now have more room to waddle.
The enclosure boasts special landscape features like a pool and a wave machine generating artificial waves.
It took about two months to select suitable penguins to be moved.
Raja Segran, general curator at Jurong Bird Park said: "We got to make sure new birds, younger birds were brought here so they can adapt better, rather than bring birds that have settled in. Selections were done by zoo experts and when we brought the birds here, it was straightforward and pretty interesting, the birds literally knew what to do."
And adapting to Singapore's climate would not pose a problem for the penguins as they are one of the few species of penguins that live in tropical conditions.
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