Mingle with penguins at Penguinarium

The Detroit Zoo’s Penguinarium, which opened in 1968, was the first facility in North America designed specifically for penguins.

The three species living at the Detroit Zoo include king, macaroni and rockhopper, all of which are sub-Antarctic species. These species require colder temperatures and, as a result, the Detroit Zoo maintains extensive life-support equipment for this facility.

The Detroit Zoo has a long history with penguins and has successfully raised many penguins of numerous species throughout the years. Recent focus has been on breeding macaroni penguins, a penguin species held at only a few zoos in North America. Thanks to the hard work of its animal care staff, the Detroit Zoo raised five macaroni chicks in 2007!

"They're very social," said Tom Schneider, curator of birds at the region's only zoo. "They form bonds. Then sometimes they have divorces, and they take up with someone else."

Schneider, of St. Clair Shores, oversees the penguins and every other bird exhibit at the zoo, a job he's held for 22 years. He learned early on that penguins have personalities, with some eager to form friendships and engage the public and others that keep their own counsel.

Rockhopper and macaroni penguins, especially, are friendly little guys who like to check out their visitors, Schneider said.

Penguins are so popular the zoo is raising funds by allowing groups of four animal lovers at a time to come into the Penguinarium after hours for "macaroni mingler" events. Groups pay $500 to spend time up close and personal with the soft, sea faring creatures.

Penguins have thrived in the Penguinarium since it opened; it now holds some of the oldest living penguins. In fact, King Penguin One, as he is known by zoo staff, is the oldest king penguin in the country.

Preserving penguin populations

Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World is a wonderland of snow, ice and amazing underwater sights in New Zealand. Here, you can explore the wilds of Antarctica and the natural treasures of the ocean depths in their Underwater World.

You can also visit Kelly’s Penguins which live in an environment that closely mimics their natural habitat, with fresh snow, real ice and freezing temperatures.

More importantly, Talrton's has been breeding penguins for nearly 12 years and has so far exported 110 of them to countries such as China, Spain, Taiwan and Japan. Tarlton's obtained its first 20 king penguins from Sea World, in San Antonio Texas in 1994, and its first 29 gentoo penguins from Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland a year later.

There is now a plan underway for Talrton's to export 77 more of its penguins, this time to a Melbourne aquarium. The proposal is to send 24 king penguins and 53 gentoo penguins to the Melbourne aquarium which plans to also breed the penguins for export, once its own pens have been stocked. It wants to have the first Antarctic display in Australia with penguins.

The Melbourne Aquarium plans to widen the genetic diversity of the New Zealand birds by importing fertile penguin eggs from the United States.

A new baby in Connecticut

A baby penguin is the newest addition to the collection of fish and animals at the Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration in Mystic, CT.

The aquarium announced that the chick was born Jan. 13. It is expected to go on display in the spring. Aquarium scientists will not know the sex of the chick until a blood test is done in a few months.

The aquarium is part of a cooperative breeding program for African black-footed penguins with other zoos and aquariums, known as the Species Survival Plan. The aquarium has seen more than a dozen chicks successfully hatched over the past 18 years.

African black-footed penguins lay two eggs, and both parents share in the responsibility of incubating them for 38 to 42 days. After they hatch, the parents feed regurgitated fish to the chicks.

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