Look What's New at the Newport Aquarium

Written by
John Johnston
jjohnston@enquirer.com
Mar. 22, 2011

Penguins explore their new home in the expanded Penguin Palooza exhibit at the Newport Aquarium. The exhibit is scheduled to open Saturday, March 26.

Penguins explore their new home in the expanded Penguin Palooza exhibit at the Newport Aquarium. The exhibit is scheduled to open Saturday, March 26. / The Enquirer/Ernest Coleman

If you go--

Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily; open 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend.

Admission: $22; children 2-12, $15; under 2, free.

Information: 859-261-7444 or www.newportaquarium.com

Possibly nobody's more pleased about Newport Aquarium's renovated penguin exhibit, which opens Saturday, than the penguins themselves.

After spending two months in a warehouse while their home was being remodeled, the aquarium's 28 king, gentoo and chinstrap penguins were introduced to the revamped exhibit, dubbed Penguin Palooza, about two weeks ago.

"It was like kids in a candy store," with lots of frolicking among new features such as rock formations and a waterfall, said Ric Urban, the aquarium's curator of birds and mammals.

With the addition of a fourth cold-climate penguin species - the rockhopper - the exhibit can boast "one of the most diverse populations of penguins in the country," Urban said. Another species also is new: a flying bird, the Inca tern.

Aquarium officials declined to reveal the cost of the renovation, but say it's the most expensive exhibit upgrade since the aquarium opened in 1999.

It doubles the exhibit's space for visitors and includes expanded seating, a Penguin Playground with interactive activities for children, and a new lighting system that will make it easier to see penguins in the late afternoon and evening. A live show repeated throughout the day will feature a presenter interacting with animated characters on a high-definition video board.

Surveys of visitors indicate penguins and sharks are tied as the attraction's favorite animals, aquarium spokesman Rodger Pille said. What's more, among animal items sold at the gift shop, penguins rank No. 1.

The exhibit depicts an end moraine, which is the ridge of rocks and other debris that forms at the border of a glacier. The rocks are sculpted concrete. Meltoff from the exhibit's glacier, which is actually made of foam, "creates water that trickles down the rocks, and the birds can play in it and shower and drink. It's really fun to watch," Urban said.

Rockhoppers, which are among the smallest penguins at about 20 inches long, live up to their name. "They love to climb about on the rocks," Urban said. "And, they're great swimmers."

The exhibit has six rockhoppers and an equal number of Inca terns, which are relatively small birds with long wings. When keepers throw fish into the 8,000-gallon salt-water tank for the penguins, Inca terns might sometimes beat them to it.

"They will actually drop into the water, get the fish, and then fly up to a rock and eat it," Urban said.

Removing the dome ceiling in the old exhibit added 16 feet of vertical space, which made room for the flying birds, a first for the exhibit.

Joanne Charles of Portsmouth, Ohio, who was visiting the aquarium Tuesday with her husband, was a bit disappointed that she couldn't yet see the penguins in their new digs.

"Even as adults we enjoy them. We sit on the benches and watch them jump and swim."

The benches she referred to have been replaced by new, elevated seating that accommodates 60 people, up from 45.

Also new: an LED (light-emitting diode) grid that will make it easier for visitors to see penguins later in the day or evening. The aquarium keeps the penguins on their native Southern Hemisphere lighting cycle, which means turning off the exhibit lights as early as 4 p.m. in the summer.

The new lighting system - modeled after aurora australis, the Southern Hemisphere's version of northern lights - will feature shades of blue, red and green cascading over the exhibit's glacier, which will "slightly illuminate the birds so you can see the whole exhibit at night," Urban said.
Source