Dudley Wigdahl, Curator of Mammals and Birds at the Aquarium of the Pacific, joined explore.org to discuss the Magellanic Penguins chicks and answer questions from the audience. Some of the Magellanic Penguins here were rescued from Brazil where they were stranded outside their native habitat.
On April 7 2011, the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach welcomed five rescued Magellanic penguins, becoming the first penguins in the Aquarium’s collections. The penguins, believed to be yearlings, were found stranded off a beach in Brazil. “You don’t normally find these penguins much farther north than the Falkland islands. The locations of their food sources are changing, perhaps due to climate change, and penguins have to travel farther in search of food,” said Dudley Wigdahl.
Magellanic penguins are typically found near the southern tip of South America in Chile and Argentina, where they feed on small fish such as sardines and anchovies. Hundreds of these penguins have been found stranded in Brazil. After rescue, some of these birds are strong enough to return to the wild while others are deemed unreleasable because of health issues.
Those that could not return to the wild, joined Dudley at the Aquarium they now comfortably call home three years later. Visit the Penguin Chick Live Cam here or meet the baby Penguins in person! Enjoy the Q&A with Dudley Wigdahl below.
Did You Know? Penguins have been on Earth for 50 million years.
