USA: Penguins rescued from Brazil settle into California home

Record ID: 863335

  • Title: USA: Penguins rescued from Brazil settle into California home
  • Date: 19th May 2012
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) JEFF GACADE, AQUARIUM OF THE PACIFIC MAMMALOGIST, SAYING: "They've been adjusting really well. We do some things for them to help them stay cool, give them some areas that they can cool off. There is nest boxes on our exhibit here, they can go in ... cool off areas over there. We have some areas where they can have water sprinkled down that helps keep them cool. But overall they have been doing great and being able to adjust really well to our climate here."
  • Embargoed: 3rd June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • City:
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Environment
  • Reuters ID: LVACKJCPCPFR0D5Y2ZDCBHTECDU8
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  • Story Text: Four penguins that ventured away from coastal Argentina and Chile in search of food and were found stranded last year on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, have a new home as part of a penguin exhibit that opened Thursday (May 17) in Long Beach, California.
    Climate experts blame changes in the Earth's atmosphere for penguins getting lost while looking for food.
    Jeff Gacade, a mammalogist at the Aquarium of the Pacific which is hosting the exhibit, explains:
    "The group that we have that came in that were stranded in Brazil were actually found right on the beach of Rio de Janeiro which is much further north of their typical range. And most of the ones that were found there were all juveniles and probably what ended up happening was they were following food source up that far north, the food sources appeared and they were stranded and they didn't know where to go."
    The 1.5 million dollar (USD) June Keyes exhibit will house 13 Magellanic penguins, named after their natural habitat, the Strait of Magellan. The habitat is 3,000-square-foot and includes a 14,000-gallon pool and a crawl space where visitors can feel like part of the habitat. Four of the new residents were found starving on Brazilian beaches while the rest came from other exhibits across the United States.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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