Newsom the Penguin enthralled by a disco ball.
| Dominique Richardson
While it’s
breeding season for the penguins, not all of them are stuck at home in
their nest box. We planned a bright and colorful enrichment session for a
few of the penguins, not currently preoccupied with nesting. Behind the
scenes, we set up a colored disco ball and set out some toys and
bright, shiny confetti, safely sealed away in a penguin-proof container
of course. As the party guests arrived, they hopped down the stairs and
spotted all of the fun. Old toys were ignored in favor of the new
enrichment items. Several penguins eyed the shiny confetti-in-a-bottle
and nudged it, but while it was a curiosity, it wasn’t the life of the
party. The main attraction was the colored disco ball.
The lights shined on the ground (but not too brightly, to be on the
safe side). And it spun in circles… oooooh… The attending penguins were
quite intrigued. They gawked at the colors, or maybe it was the motion.
A couple penguins walked around and around to get different views,
stopping every few waddles to peer and cock their head to the side as
though trying to reason out what the thing was. But I guess Penguin
parties are short. After a time with the repetitive disco ball, the
penguins decided to call it a night and return to their regular
activities of swimming and following their caretakers around. And with
that, the party was over.
The Penguin Camera is located on Torgersen Island (64°46’S, 64°04’W), off the coast of Anvers Island and less than a mile from Palmer Station. Torgersen Island is home to a colony of Adélie penguins numbering approximately 2,500. This camera is seasonal and operates primarily from October to February, the Adélie breeding season. The camera is solar-powered and may sometimes experience brief outages due to inclement weather. School classrooms and other educational demonstrations will often take control of the camera, moving it to gain better views of the colony.
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