SEA LIFE Weymouth Aquarium News

[Javan Rhino]

Sorry, to clarify, I don't object to the floor level at which a penguin exhibit is situated, I object to an exhibit lacking any natural daylight. I am not a fan of reverse-lighting nocturnal houses for small mammals either, but I am certainly not a fan of an aquarium housing seabirds in an exhibit lacking natural light because the institution bringing them in has no other space.

However, I could be wrong and they may well use the entrance area as part of the exhibit.

I am aware of other indoor penguin exhibits throughout the world where daylight is artificially provided/controlled. I am not a fan of these either, but if they come up with anything approaching the quality of some of these exhibits I will be pleasantly surprised.

I'm not aware of, and would be interested to see any research into health and behaviour of penguins kept in light-controlled conditions as opposed to outdoors. Air quality is obviously easier to control indoors which is an advantage.

Is there any way to fix the cons of indoor penguin exhibits whilst still exploiting the pros. I'm going to use Emperor penguins as a case in point, since they are a famous example that simply cannot thrive in outdoor exhibits (in most regions). I once enquired how well Emperor penguins would do at Edinburgh, and the climate would still be too warm for them.

So, is there a way to get natural light into an indoor exhibit (large double-glazed windows to get as much light in as possible, whilst keeping the temp. control cold), and ways of getting natural air in (circulation systems etc?).

I don't know if anybody sees what I mean, but could the cons be worked around to make a highly successful exhibit?

 

[Shorts]

I don't know if anybody sees what I mean, but could the cons be worked around to make a highly successful exhibit?

I'm sure that it's technically feasible, it's just likely to be prohibitively expensive and so not economically viable for almost all places to do it (assuming they had the intention).

 

[johnstoni]

And it needs to be remembered that this is not a decision to house penguins indoors/with artificial light cycles (if indeed these will mimic the natural seasonality) because it is thought this will benefit them most, this is a commercial aquarium adding penguins to its portfolio without any option to house them outside....unless Edinburgh is needing to house surplus gentoos and is being selective about where they go, however I'm not aware Woburn is planning an indoor penguin exhibit for its planned gentoos?