VIDEO: Aquarium’s New Penguins Adjust To Backstage Digs

—Gazette photo by Ashleigh Oldland FLOATIN’. One of the Aquarium of the Pacific’s new Magellanic penguins plays in the water last Friday.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011 

By Ashleigh Oldland
Editor gazettes.com 

 

    Wobbling on the rocks, sleeping on their bellies and flapping their wings through the water, five rescued penguins are quickly adjusting to their new home at the Aquarium of the Pacific.
    Distinguishable by the thick white lines around their eyes, the five pudgy Magellanic penguins will make their public debut in a new outdoor exhibit, the June Keyes Penguin Habitat, in summer 2012.
    For now, the two males and three females are being cared for and fed a diet of sardines, anchovies and herring in a behind-the-scenes holding area. Their temporary outdoor shelter comes complete with a large pool and patio space.
    Typically found near the southernmost tip of South America, the penguins were among hundreds of Magellanic penguins rescued from the beaches of Brazil, thousands of miles outside their usual habitat.
    “You don’t normally find these penguins much farther north than the Falkland Islands,” said Dudley Wigdahl, the aquarium’s curator of marine mammals and birds, as one of the birds swam up close and began nibbling on his outstretched finger.
    “The locations of their food sources are changing, perhaps due to climate change, and the penguins are having to travel farther in search of food… When these penguins were stranded, they were frail and emaciated after such a long swim.”
    Although some of the birds found stranded in Brazil were released back into the wild, others died and Wigdahl said these five could not survive on their own. While the Magellanic species is not endangered, populations are trending down.
    The aquarium’s newest residents, who could live to be 25 to 30 years old, still need some medical attention. In particular, the birds’ webbed feet were damaged and need to be rehabilitated to prevent infections. Once they are fully recovered, Wigdahl said it’s possible the birds will mate — females can lay up to two eggs in underground nests each mating season.
    Wigdahl said the penguins, which are believed to be less than one year old and look like five identical twins, need time to recover, relax and adjust to their new home before becoming ambassadors for the aquarium.
    “These are the start to the bird collection we’ll have in the June Keyes Penguin Habitat,” he said. “They are here to tell a story of what’s happening in the wild.”
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