It’s that time of year again where we talk everything Penguin! We can appreciate Penguins every day of course, they are awesome after all, but Penguin Awareness Day is all about raising awareness of the plight of these birds in the wild. Penguins are such a celebrated species already, with many people falling in love with these cute little characters.
But sadly, many species of Penguin are threatened by habitat destruction. Climate change, overfishing, introduced predators, pollution and oil spills all put pressure on all 18 Penguin species around the globe.
Penguin Awareness Day occurs every year on the 20th January and is also a day to celebrate the incredible habitats and adaptations of these animals. So, this year I’d like to do something a little less serious by listing my top three Penguin facts and to point out our own little gem tucked away underneath the Penguin’s main enclosure.
My top three Penguin facts:
- Not all Penguins come from Antarctica.
Whilst some Penguin species do come from the South Pole, you can also find them in warmer climates such as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and some, like our Humboldt Penguins, come from South America.
All Penguin species can be found in the southern hemisphere of our planet, except the Galapagos Penguin, which live just above the equator – the most northerly of all of the Penguin species.
If you’d like to know more about each species of Penguin, see my previous Penguin Awareness Day blog HERE.
2. Humboldt Penguins build their nests out of their own poo!
I love watching people’s reactions when they first hear this fact. Over time, the poop from thousands of seabirds at their nesting sites build up, creating layers of bird poo known as guano. Humboldt Penguins especially like digging burrows into guano to create a safer place to rear their young. Unfortunately, this is one of the reasons Humboldt Penguin populations have declined, because guano used to be very valuable as fertilizer.
3. Penguins can see just as clearly under the water as they can out of the water!
If you’ve ever tried to open your eyes whilst swimming underwater, you may have noticed that everything gets a bit blurry. Light behaves differently when it enters water because of how differently light travels and bends through liquid, a phenomenon called refraction. But Penguins counteract this by changing the shape of the lens inside their eyeball, giving them excellent clarity of vision both under and above the surface.
Did you know that we have a Penguin underwater viewing window?
I’ve come to realise, that many people don’t realise we have an underwater viewing area at our Penguin enclosure. So, I’d like to take this opportunity to show you how fun this little feature of the exhibit can be. Some of my bird team helped me run a quick experiment to see if the Penguins had any preference with what they like to interact with from the other side of the window. Check out the video at the end of this blog to see how much the Penguins enjoyed themselves.
We interact with the Penguins every day when we clean the glass. They absolutely love chasing the sponge when they’re in a playful mood. It’s a wonder how we get any work done working with such inquisitive animals!
You can always find something that the Penguins will be interested in chasing. Gloves, hats and scarves are always a hit! The Penguins had never seen this colourful hat before, and they absolutely loved chasing it!
Lots of the animals like looking in a small mirror if they are near a window. I think the Penguins are especially drawn to anything shiny. Perhaps because a shiny object might look like a fish? I was surprised when we did this experiment that we didn’t have as many Penguins coming to be nosey. Maybe we’ll try a bigger mirror next time!
Anything novel usually gets a great reaction from the Penguins, they love all sorts of cuddly toys! If you’ve had any interactions with the Penguins at the window, we’d love to see your photos! Tag us online on our Facebook and Instagram pages!
If you would like to find out which Penguin is being playful at the window, you can now look up who each of our penguins are on our website! Check it out HERE.
Penguin Interaction experiment – what will be their favourite thing to interact with?
I hope you enjoyed our little experiment as much as we did. If you haven’t had enough of learning about Penguins check out some of my previous blogs. I’ll leave you with a couple of my personal favourites for you:
See some of my favourite pictures of adorable Penguin chicks and some fascinating info about their development in my blog HERE.
And if you’ve not seen a moulting Penguin before, you can take my word that they look hilarious. Read all about a Penguin’s catastrophic annual moult and their scruffy appearance during this time HERE.
