Published: 2/21
A little taste of happy feet right here in the Hub City. The Science Spectrum welcomes four new African Blackfoot penguins.
"The Penguin Plunge" exhibit is in town and they're coming all the way from the Panama, Florida.
The habitat will house three males and one female.
"Missy was hand raised by our training staff over at gulf area marine park," Senior Trainer Rachel Cain said. "She is very dear to us and she is the first penguin we had hatch at the Gulf aquarium in over 20 years and she has been the only one since."
She said that leaving the penguin she had trained her entire life would be extremely hard.
"She is heading to Lubbock for a couple of months so that she can learn to bond with some of our other penguins and teach all of the people in Lubbock about penguins," she said. "And let them get up close and personal with these penguins so that they can love and respect them just like we do down in Florida."
Cain said she appears to already be enjoying her new habitat.
This event marks the first time that penguins have ever been to Lubbock.
"Lubbock is in an odd position because the city of Lubbock has no zoo," Curator of Life Scientist Kevin Rhodes said. "We have smaller towns around us like Clovis and Roswell that have little zoos, Amarillo has a decent zoo, and Abilene has a great zoo for its size. The city of Lubbock has nothing. Hopefully with this opportunity with Lubbock being the Hub City that it is people will enjoy not having to drive all the way to Dallas."
Rhodes said the habitat was constructed in Virginia for different zoos that don't already have something to house penguins.
"It's ideally best when the habitat can be indoors," he said. "There are many times that people will keep them outside at various zoos and under tents. I think the people in West Texas will especially enjoy getting out of the dust storms and see a nice exhibit."
The exhibit will open to the public on March 1. The penguins will be in Lubbock through June 15.
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