Penguin Parade

Alette and I recently became members of the Edinburgh Zoo. It's about a 20-minute walk & bus from our house, making for quite a convenient visit. Unlike some other zoos I've been to, most of the animals seem to have quite spacious surroundings and seem relatively comfortable (at least as far as I can tell). But I'm not here to blog about the zoo; I'm here to tell you of the Penguin Parade.

At 2:15pm everyday, the gate to the penguin enclosure is opened, and eager penguins line up to participate in a 5-minute stroll amongst the humans. The ritual apparently started when the cage door was left open by accident, way back in 1951, and some curious penguins made a break for it. On Sunday, there were 15 penguins that formed the parade, all gentoo penguins, all originally from the Falkland Islands. The zoo has over 100 gentoo penguins (almost 200 penguins altogether), apparently they do well here because the weather here is quite similar to that in the Falkland Islands: i.e. cold, gray, and rainy.

Here's a link to a video of the parade (that we didn't take). And a video of the knighting of one of the king penguins.

Click on the photo above to see the rest of our penguin parade pictures. There are also photos of the beautiful views from the zoo, and of vicunas.