Antarctic penguins shipped to the USA

Emperor penguins in Antarctica.
Photo by StormPetrel1.
Some rights reserved.

ANTARCTICA - New Zealand conservation groups have condemned the shipping of ten young emperor penguins from Antarctica to SeaWorld in California in November 2011.

Friends of the Earth NZ director Bob Tait told the NZ Herald, "We strongly object to the removal of the penguins from their colony, and subjecting them to the ordeals of lengthy jet travel, and condemning them, for profit-driven reasons, to live out the rest of their lives separated from their real colony in an alien environment at SeaWorld, California."

Cath Wallace of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition said, "Antarctica is a reserve for science and nature, not a place for [taking] things from their homes.''
 
In response, SeaWorld's communications director David Koontz told the NZ Herald that, while the penguins would go on display at SeaWorld, the marine park co-ordinated their transportation on behalf of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego. The birds will be used in a research project to determine lung and air sac volumes in emperor penguins. Their removal from Antarctica had been approved by the US National Science Foundation.

SeaWorld already has its own emperor penguin breeding programme, but Mr Koontz said most of SeaWorld's penguins were too old to undergo anaesthesia, which would be required as part of the research, which is why the young birds were imported.

Source
Experts slam penguin 'plucking' by Isaac Davison, 24 December 2011, NZ Herald

Penguin premiere for "Mr Popper's Penguins" trailer

SeaWorld San Diego's penguins watch
"Mr Popper's Penguins" trailer
Credit: Eric Charbonneau/WireImage.com

USA - If you're always wearing a tuxedo, you're always ready for a movie premiere - which must be why the penguins at SeaWorld San Diego seemed to take it all in their stride when they were given a special screening of the first trailer for the 20th Century Fox comedy "Mr Popper's Penguins".

The unusual movie goers were even provided with appropriate snacks - popcorn boxes filled with herrings.

Starring six gentoo penguins (oh, and a human named Jim Carrey), Mr Popper's Penguins will open in the USA on 17 June.

I wonder if the penguin's keepers will let them watch the movie when it's released - now they've seen the trailer they'll want to find out what happens!

Source
SeaWorld San Diego’s penguins get first look at Jim Carrey’s new movie "Mr. Popper's Penguins" at premiere of film’s trailer, 23 March 2011, Business Wire

Watch the trailer below:

SeaWorld's flying penguins go viral

USA - While it may not have quite as much action as the 2006 movie "Snakes on a Plane", a Southwest Airlines passenger's YouTube video "Penguins on a Plane" has become an internet sensation.

The Magellanic penguins flew from San Francisco, where they had attended a national science convention, to SeaWorld in San Diego on 12 March.

A passenger videoed Pete, one of the feathery flight attendants, as he roamed freely down the aisle.

On the video a SeaWorld staff member can be heard educating the passengers about the birds over the tannoy. It would have made a nice change from listening to the emergency exit procedures!