Little Penguins make big splash at National Aquarium
Thursday 1 November 2012, 8:51PM
By Napier City Council Tourism Services
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The National Aquarium will celebrate months of ‘behind the scenes’ work this week when it opens its latest exhibit, Penguin Cove, on Saturday (3 November 2012).
The newest residents of the Aquarium recently made the journey from nearby Marineland to their new home and have settled into their new life-like surroundings very quickly.
Penguin Cove has been carefully designed to replicate the penguins’ natural beach habitat to ensure they feel right at home in their new abode.
Walk into the new exhibit and see a sandy beach, made up of 28 tonnes of golden sand donated by Winstone Aggregates. Driftwood, rocks and a swimming pool with underwater viewing complete the exhibit – everything that allows the 10 penguins to go about their normal routine of fishing and feeding during the day, then returning to the beach for play and sleep at night.
“Be prepared to learn lots of interesting facts when you visit Penguin Cove,” says National Aquarium of New Zealand Manager Rob Yarrall.
“There will be talks by our penguin keepers three times a day, including a feeding time. This will be a chance for our staff to share information about how close Little Penguins live to us and how we can all help with their declining numbers by doing a few simple things,” says Rob.
The Aquarium will be working closely with Department of Conservation (DOC) to share these messages, such as encouraging dog owners to keep their pets on leads at the beach and to contact DOC if members of the public ever find a Little Penguin that they are concerned about.
“Our Little Penguins will be great ambassadors for their species in the wild. People can come and look at them and get to know all about them,” says Rob.
Eventually Penguin Cove could happily house up to as many as 20 penguins, double the current number.
Napier Mayor Barbara Arnott says it’s great to have this new exhibit ready for locals and visitors to enjoy this summer and in years to come.
“It’s such a positive addition to the Aquarium, not only enhancing the visitor experience, but also adding to the vision of creating a Kids’ Capital along Marine Parade.”