Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Antarctic Penguins (Captive bred in New Zealand)

Last week I went to see some of the most beautiful and graceful birds (in water) on the planet and not a lot of people ever see them - penguins from Antarctica! In New Zealand they have a successful captive breeding program so they can be studied and protected. It also means that we don't have to go to the south pole to see them. The Melbourne Aquarium has a number of them. There are two types of penguins. The ones with the bright yellow collar are King Penguins and the other ones are Gentoo Penguins. The enclosure is refrigerated and there is lots of ice to make it as much like their natural habitat as possible.