Photos by Trevor Roberson
No, penguins have not made the evolutionary quantum leap of acquiring the ability to fly. But one of the main forces that drives biological evolution — namely, environmental pressures — has directly contributed to why the Aquarium of the Pacific opens its June Keyes Penguin Exhibit today, which houses 13 Magellanic Penguins[i] in an open-air enclosure designed to keep them in view even when they’re underwater.
To some extent the exhibit is an attraction the Aquarium would rather not have. But the environmental pressures of global warming and overfishing have impelled many penguins to migrate ever further northward from their natural southern latitudes in search of food. Thus did four of the exhibit’s penguins become stranded near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — several hundreds of miles north of their proper habitat, which ends in Argentina. (The other nine come to the Aquarium by way of Sea World and the San Francisco Zoo.)
A crawlspace in the exhibit allows visitors to get VERY close to swimming penguins
The June Keyes Penguin Exhibit is a permanent addition to the Aquarium, an addition that is complemented by two short films about penguins (one of which is displayed a half-dozen times a day on various surfaces in the Aquarium’s main hall after the mechanical shades are drawn), a children’s program dedicated to penguins, and a series of guest speakers on (you guessed it) penguins.
And beginning June 2 there’s the Penguin Animal Encounter, where visitors can go behind the scenes as trainers feed one of these flightless and pretty-darn-cute birds. The Penguin Animal Encounter is offered only on Thursdays and Fridays by pre-registration. It isn’t cheap ($90 per person — though Aquarium members get a discounted rate), but how else are you going to get to hang with a real live penguin?[ii]
Aquarium of the Pacific is located at 100 Aquarium Way, LB 90802. Phone: (562) 590-3100.