African Penguins

Come fall in love! Undeniably cute. Comically awkward on land. Marvelously graceful under water. Give your heart to a colony of African penguins, waddling and swimming in an outdoor exhibit, offering views above and below the water. Included with Aquarium admission.
 Instead of frosty Antarctica, this penguin species is native to the southwestern coast of South Africa and well-adapted to warm summer temperatures, like those in Norwalk. Those cute, pink “eyebrows” on an African penguin are actually featherless patches with lots of blood vessels underneath. When a penguin gets too hot, these patches get brighter as the animal circulates blood there to dissipate heat.
 African penguins also have evolved shorter feathers than other penguin species because they do not face extremely cold environments.
 Jack Schneider, the Aquarium’s curator of animals, said the African penguins are an excellent complement to The Maritime Aquarium’s other current special exhibit, “African Underwater Safari,” which showcases some of the lesser-known but equally fascinating aquatic animals of Africa.
 “Educating visitors on where penguins live is one of the first basic goals of the exhibit,” Schneider said. “None of them live at the North Pole, or anywhere near Eskimos or polar bears. Some species do live in Antarctica.  But many penguins can be found in warmer climates of the southern hemisphere, like our African penguins in South Africa and several species that live up the western coast of South America, all the way to the equator and the Galapagos Islands.”
 Schneider said the African penguins – whose conservation status is listed as vulnerable – help call attention to Africa’s troubled coastal environments, which receive far less protection than the continent’s inland savannahs, plains and jungles.