Penguins prep for Woodland Park Zoo debut

They may be the world's most pampered penguins, nibbling on all-you-can-eat fish, hand-fed between naps and swims, as their custom-built home is readied next door.

But what else could be expected for celebrities? For these 20 Humboldt penguins, gathered from zoos around the country, are soon to be stars in the first major new attraction at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo in a decade: the 17,500-square-foot, $6.5 million penguin exhibit, opening to the public May 2.

The exhibit marks the return of penguins to the zoo after a hiatus of about a year, while the old exhibit was demolished and the new one built in its place. The eight Humboldt penguins from that exhibit reside today in other zoos.

The new penguins, from 1 to 20 years old, arrived March 17 and have been resting up in quarantine. Keeper Celine Pardo feeds the penguins twice daily a diet of capelin, smelt and silversides -- penguin Twinkies, she says, feeding each penguin according to its preference.

"Radar," she calls softly, handing the penguin its fish. "Margarita," she says to another, and the penguin two-steps over to gobble a fish, swallowing it whole. Some like their fish tossed, some want to be fed to the left side of their beak, some to the right.

Standing only about knee-high, the penguins weigh only about 9 pounds. Naturally flightless, they are an even mix of males and females. Many were hand-raised from birth, and readily come when called, to be weighed or fed or examined.

Two of the penguins, Radar and Pizarron, were hatched at Woodland Park, but like the others, were flown in from five zoos around the country, traveling in dog kennels.

Most so far have found the transition to Woodland Park easy. None has taken ill, or even missed a meal, settling into the quarantine facility built just behind the exhibit.

And what an exhibit it is, with walls of windows under water, so visitors can watch the penguins swim at speeds of up to 17 miles an hour. It includes replicas of nesting cavities and rock scrambles to play in, and the entire exhibit is outdoors.

It is intended to be an immersion exhibit that transports visitors to a replica of the penguins' natural environment on the desert coast of Peru, with rocky, guano-encrusted cliffs.

The exhibit was also built to save water and be easy on the environment. Rain water will be used to refill the tank, and a manufactured wetland will help cleanse the water. The water will be heated and cooled geothermally in deep tanks extending below the exhibit.

But the magic, of course, is the birds themselves. Braying like donkeys with voices outsized to their diminutive stature -- not for nothing are they called jackass penguins -- on land they stump about, their bodies rocking side to side as they waddle. Once in the water it's another story: The penguins are all streamlined, fluid grace. The exhibit includes underwater mounds to encourage the penguins to dive and swoop through the water.

Endangered in the wild, the birds are expected to thrive at the zoo. Eventually, the exhibit may be home to as many as 60 birds as the animals reproduce, and more are brought in from other zoos. Part of the work for the penguins while in quarantine is establishing a social order as a colony, as they do in the wild.

Some of the animals traveled as a mated pair. But most are not, and will need to size one another up. The animals were selected from the various zoos for genetic compatibility, and penguins usually breed with great success in captivity.

The exhibit includes tunnels to nest areas, where the animals can rear their young. It takes about 40 days for eggs to hatch, with both parents tending the nest.

For now, the colony's residents are males PJ, Quanto, Chiquito, Raul, Mateo, Diego, Pizarron, Oedipus and Burkles; and females Sardinia, Margarita, Rocky, Dora, Pupito, Radar, Cujo, Erika, Gonzo and Anchovetta. One bird, a male, is unnamed -- but may have a name from his former zoo. Pardo is looking into it.

"Most people might not think of birds as having personalities, or being very smart," Pardo said. "But they are very responsive to their names. And each one is very much an individual."

Lynda V. Mapes: 206-464-2736 or lmapes@seattletimes.com