Joe Proto feeds the ten African Penguins fish at the Lehigh Valley Zoo on Tuesday.
(ROB KANDEL, THE MORNING CALL / May 10, 2011)
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Penguin-feeding time at the Lehigh Valley Zoo always draws a crowd.
I dropped in on the penguins at feeding time, and it did my heart good to see them eat. They made short work of a big bucket of smelt, anchovies, herring and sardines, then toddled off to the side of the pool to doze and digest.What a life! I don't believe in reincarnation, but if I did, I would ask to return as an African penguin and live at the Lehigh Valley Zoo. Two big meals a day, indoor and outdoor swimming pools and an adoring fan base, especially among the toddler set.
I wouldn't want to live as one in the wild, because land development in their native habitats and overfishing of their favorite foods have put African penguins — also known as black-footed penguins and jackass penguins — squarely on the endangered list.
Naturally. Just when you start to think humanity might be OK after all, you find out some cabal of South African and Namibian hoteliers has chased a species to the brink of extinction by building all over the beaches.
The zoo's penguins are males named Thulani, Kunye, Lyden, Curtis, Houdini and Quinn; and females named Hidithi, Greer, Thabo and Lionel. Yes, Lionel.
They are black on the back and white on the belly — tuxedo-like, as you expect penguins to be — and they walk around with their wings extended out from their sides and a little forward, like they are perpetually ready to hug someone. When they are feeling excited or amorous, they bray, which is how they came by the jackass nickname.
The black spots on their chests are unique to each penguin, as fingerprints are to humans, though the zoo penguins are also tagged to make them more easily identifiable during the chaos of feeding time. That's important, because zoo staffers monitor their nutrition and must carefully note the kinds and numbers of fish each penguin has eaten.
Before Tuesday's 3 p.m. feeding, one of the penguins hopped up on a rock and stared steadily at the little crowd of us gathered at the fence. A Floridian named Dave Miller imagined what the bird was thinking: "You know how dumb you people look, standing there watching me watching you?"
I credited it with kinder thoughts. It looked interested in the cameras, in keeping with what the zoo's general curator, Rich Rosevear, said is the keen curiosity of the breed.
"They have lots of character," he said. "They're one of the favorite animals here. People think they're cute, and they're very interesting, between their behavior and their endangered status."
Rosevear said the species was listed as "vulnerable" when the zoo's flock arrived nearly three years ago, but it was added to the endangered list last fall.
Sheri Peters, the director of conservation education, said fewer than 20,000 breeding pairs remain in the wild. The development that has eaten into their habitat has also introduced new predators, including feral dogs and cats.
The penguins have no enemies here. Children love them. And no children love them more than Trish Dilg's 23-month-old triplets, Mary, Addison and Clare.
"Oh, my gosh, they're obsessed with them," she told me. "Every time they see penguins, they come to a standstill. We're having their second birthday party here next month because of the penguins."
It will be a black-tie affair, of course. For the birds, anyway.
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