For this week’s view from the zoo we are going to celebrate an awareness day for one of the most popular species here at Flamingo Land. Saturday the 20th of January is Penguin Awareness Day and here at Flamingo Land we are lucky to have a colony of twenty-two Humboldt Penguins.

There are 17 different types of penguin for you to be aware of – they are the Adelie Penguin, African Penguin, Chinstrap Penguin, Emperor Penguin, Erect-Crested Penguin, Fiordland (Crested) Penguin, Galapagos Penguin, Gentoo Penguin, Humboldt Penguin, King Penguin, Little Penguin, Macaroni Penguin, Magellanic Penguin, Northern Rockhopper Penguin, Royal Penguin, Snares (Island) Penguin, Southern Rockhopper Penguin and Yellow-Eyed Penguin. All species of Penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere ranging from South America to New Zealand!

Here at Flamingo Land we have Humboldt penguins which are also known as Chilean or Peruvian penguins. They live in small colonies and are a medium sized penguin, weighing no more than 13 pounds when fully grown. Penguins tend to be associated with very cold climates however our species come from the Pacific coastline of Chile and Peru. This means they are more adapted to a hot climate as opposed to the snow that has been falling upon North Yorkshire in recent weeks! They can still be seen swimming around in their pool but some may prefer to stay inside within their nest boxes.

Humboldt penguins are classed as vulnerable as there is thought to be around 12,000 of them left in the wild and this number is still declining, this is mostly due to over fishing, climate change and habitat destruction, this species has been declining over the last thirty years so breeding efforts in zoos are incredibly important.

If you would like to meet our Penguins and feed them you can book a penguin encounter for £20 a person and any one aged 8 and over are able to do this. You will spend time with our experienced penguin keeper and learn all about how they are looked after and hand feed them their favourite food – fish and lots of it!