For my next day at the New England Aquarium, I was lucky enough to get to shadow the caretakers of the Penguin Exhibits! The aquarium is home to about 50 penguins, including a mix of African Penguins and Southern Rockhoppers, with each individual penguin being marked by a colored band in order to make them more easily recognizable. My day started with a general tour of the exhibit, highlighting the individual structures and facilities unique to each species section, as well as some of the systems that make maintaining the exhibit easier (Such as concealed sprinklers to clean up after the penguins). Once we finished the tour, I got to see how the penguins food was prepped for the day! The penguins get a filling serving of fish, and have the species of fish cycled through to ensure they all get plenty of nutrients that they may need while living in the Aquarium!
Once the food was all prepared, we got suited up to head into the exhibit. Because the water is pretty brisk, the staff and volunteers working in the water normally wear 7mm wetsuits, so that they aren’t worried at all about being cold after a decent amount of time moving around. Once we were ready, we hopped on in! The first task on schedule for the staff today was a feeding, so we moved through the exhibit until we got to a rocky island that seemed conducive to for anything else going on in the exhibit, such as cleanings. Feeding the African Penguins was super interesting to watch and help with, since the penguins are basically fed until their full, and they tend to swim away once their full, making it simple to know who needs to eat. I was able to help as the scribe, keeping a tally of how much each penguin ate, which would be logged later as a record of each individual penguins’ diet!
Once the penguins were all full from breakfast, I got to help clean some of the Southern Rockhopper exhibits rock scapes. The exhibits are all cleaned by not only chipping away at any physical debris left on the islands, but also by scrubbing them down with a sterilizing agent to make sure there’s no bacteria or anything else left on the rocks’ surfaces.
We scrubbed the exhibits for a little while, and then it was time for the penguin’s enrichment. Because the penguins are kept in the same exhibit all day, its important for them to get enrichment through either visual, tactile, or other stimulations to keep their skills sharp. I got to shadow the exhibit’s enrichment coordinator for the sessions, and luckily she said I was there on the most fun day! Today was bubble day, which meant we would be blowing bubbles at/around the penguins for them to not only chase said bubbles, but to also work on a behavior called “tracking,” which is the penguins following an object with their eyes while being stationary. Blowing the penguin-safe bubbles around was super fun, especially when they would get curious enough to chase them.
Once their enrichment was completed, I got an amazing tour of how the animals are taken care of at both a young age prior to entering the exhibit, as well as any individuals which may be having issues with the rest of the colony or environment. All of the penguins at the New England Aquarium are taken care of in both a preventative, as well as a remedial stance, and it is absolutely amazing to see how much effort is put into keeping them as healthy as they can be. Thank you so much to the penguin team for a once in a lifetime day!