SeaWorld San Diego Penguin Encounter closing?

evilmonkey239

evilmonkey239

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Moderator note: topic split from this news thread : SeaWorld San Diego News [SeaWorld San Diego]



zoocentral said:
Both Aquaria: World of Fishes and Tide Pool were demolished in 2024. The current plan is to turn the area into an expanded rescue facility with guest viewing. However, that is not until Shark Encounter receives its refresh and Penguin Encounter is demolished and replaced by a new exhibit for temperate penguins.
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Does this mean they’re sending the Antarctic/Subantarctic penguins away?
 
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To put it kindly, Penguin Encounter is... falling apart. The building has been inspected and it was determined that it would be cheaper to demolish the building and start over rather than update the structure itself. It is also just not as keeper friendly anymore (nor was it ever really). For example, there are stairs to get into the exhibit which is not only troublesome for moving penguins, but also means that the tours are not ADA accessible.

The penguins will most likely stay within SW parks. If I had to guess, the emperors would go to Orlando. If the emperors were to leave the company, they would go to Japan if anywhere. I could also see a lot of the Alcids going to Abu Dhabi. The SW parks need to do a massive transfer among all their species of penguins in order to improve their MateRxs. The closing of SWSD's Penguin Encounter would allow for this. Therefore, in terms of population management, I see this as a good thing. However, going from eight species of penguin to one is definitely a downer. I just hope and pray it is the best banded penguin exhibit we have ever seen. From what I have heard, it will be impressive.

As for a timeline on this, I think they want to start moving birds before the next breeding season.
 
zoocentral said:
To put it kindly, Penguin Encounter is... falling apart. The building has been inspected and it was determined that it would be cheaper to demolish the building and start over rather than update the structure itself. It is also just not as keeper friendly anymore (nor was it ever really). For example, there are stairs to get into the exhibit which is not only troublesome for moving penguins, but also means that the tours are not ADA accessible.

The penguins will most likely stay within SW parks. If I had to guess, the emperors would go to Orlando. If the emperors were to leave the company, they would go to Japan if anywhere. I could also see a lot of the Alcids going to Abu Dhabi. The SW parks need to do a massive transfer among all their species of penguins in order to improve their MateRxs. The closing of SWSD's Penguin Encounter would allow for this. Therefore, in terms of population management, I see this as a good thing. However, going from eight species of penguin to one is definitely a downer. I just hope and pray it is the best banded penguin exhibit we have ever seen. From what I have heard, it will be impressive.

As for a timeline on this, I think they want to start moving birds before the next breeding season.
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Thanks for the explanation. For a company like SeaWorld I would hope they would be willing to pay for an updated penguin encounter but I guess not :(. Unless the new exhibit is truly incredible I feel it will be hard for it to not be at least a little disappointing considering it will be replacing emperor penguins. I could also see a nice African penguin exhibit as the SDZ so that doesn’t help.
 
I honestly hope they don’t demolish Penguin Encounter for I feel like it is not worth the risk stressing/moving such a fragile and small population of Emperors, the only ones in the US! Though I can Empire of Antarctica definitely is more revolutionary, the presence of Emperors always made up for the generic indoor exhibit design IMO.
 
zoocentral said:
The penguins will most likely stay within SW parks. If I had to guess, the emperors would go to Orlando. If the emperors were to leave the company, they would go to Japan if anywhere. I could also see a lot of the Alcids going to Abu Dhabi. The SW parks need to do a massive transfer among all their species of penguins in order to improve their MateRxs. The closing of SWSD's Penguin Encounter would allow for this. Therefore, in terms of population management, I see this as a good thing.
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Honestly this is going to be troublesome to accomplish if true - SeaWorld SD holds more than 300 subantarctics, by far the biggest group in NA. Splitting those up between even the 3 other facilities means 100 birds each. To say nothing of the issue that SW Orlando & Texas hold Rockhopper and SD holds Macaroni to avoid hybridization risk. We shall see I guess, hopefully they leave things alone if they can.
 
Knowing SeaWorld these days I highly doubt that it will look like anything special and more like someone's landscaped backyard. Such a shame what modern management has done and will continue to do the parks. It is a wild comparison seeing what these parks used to be in the 1900s to late 2000's versus the present. No care or attention to staff or animal welfare as much as they used to with many employees having to work multiple jobs just to afford rent. Other then the rescue program I find it very hard to visit or support the company any more.
 
Jonathan Petersson said:
Knowing SeaWorld these days I highly doubt that it will look like anything special and more like someone's landscaped backyard. Such a shame what modern management has done and will continue to do the parks. It is a wild comparison seeing what these parks used to be in the 1900s to late 2000's versus the present. No care or attention to staff or animal welfare as much as they used to with many employees having to work multiple jobs just to afford rent. Other than the rescue program I find it very hard to visit or support the company any more.
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Then again, SWF and SFC have some of the best Antarctic penguins in the US, just behind St. Louis and Detroit imao.
 
USZOOfan42 said:
Then again, SWF and SFC have some of the best Antarctic penguins in the US, just behind St. Louis and Detroit imao.
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I am not sure what SFC stands for but SeaWorld Orlando's penguin exhibit was built in 2013 which was not under the current management and rather under the Blackstone group which made some very nice additions to the parks in their early days owning it before Blackfish. I do agree that the facility is very nice but I highly doubt we will ever see something to level come out of the US SeaWorld parks again.
 
USZOOfan42 said:
Then again, SWF and SFC have some of the best Antarctic penguins in the US, just behind St. Louis and Detroit imao.
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The fact we have sustainable colonies of subantarctics in NA at all is SeaWorld's doing, and the three SeaWorlds combined house the significant majority of all subantarctic populations. They are also responsible for much of the breeding. Losing one is a significant loss, in all honesty.
 
zoocentral said:
To put it kindly, Penguin Encounter is... falling apart. The building has been inspected and it was determined that it would be cheaper to demolish the building and start over rather than update the structure itself. It is also just not as keeper friendly anymore (nor was it ever really). For example, there are stairs to get into the exhibit which is not only troublesome for moving penguins, but also means that the tours are not ADA accessible.

As for a timeline on this, I think they want to start moving birds before the next breeding season.
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Where are you getting this information? Are you just speculating? Why would they not just build a new penguin facility like they did in Orlando if what you say about Penguin Encounter falling apart is true?
 
Great Argus said:
Honestly this is going to be troublesome to accomplish if true - SeaWorld SD holds more than 300 subantarctics, by far the biggest group in NA. Splitting those up between even the 3 other facilities means 100 birds each. To say nothing of the issue that SW Orlando & Texas hold Rockhopper and SD holds Macaroni to avoid hybridization risk. We shall see I guess, hopefully they leave things alone if they can.
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A couple of things: It Is entirely possible some birds will be sent to other NA facilities, however, I think you would be surprised how many birds can actually fit in these exhibits. San Diego's Penguin Encounter held 100 more Subantarctic penguins before they were sent to Abu Dhabi for example. That brings me to my next point, SeaWorld is no stranger to massive penguin transfers. While moving 300 birds is a big feat, it is very possible. Finally, there isn't a major fear of Eudyptes penguins hybridizing. SW Abu Dhabi, for example, houses rockhopper and macaroni together.

DavidBrown said:
Where are you getting this information? Are you just speculating? Why would they not just build a new penguin facility like they did in Orlando if what you say about Penguin Encounter falling apart is true?
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My information has come directly from the Bird Department. As for why they won't build a new polar exhibit, unfortunately it boils down to money. It is MUCH more cheaper to build an outdoor temperate exhibit than it would be to build a modern polar exhibit. Plus it would be less expensive for the California park to care for just one species, rather than the 10 the building currently holds. Higher-ups have been wanting to shrink the bird collection for some time now. This includes transferring all the SSP species the park keeps behind the scenes.
 
zoocentral said:
Both Aquaria: World of Fishes and Tide Pool were demolished in 2024. The current plan is to turn the area into an expanded rescue facility with guest viewing. However, that is not until Shark Encounter receives its refresh and Penguin Encounter is demolished and replaced by a new exhibit for temperate penguins.
Click to expand...
A Shark Encounter update (hopefully expansion?) is well-deserved and certainly needed. I’m very hopeful that that could bring us some new species, as Orlando’s are vastly more impressive than ours here. However I must say, even as much more of a elasmobranch guy, like everyone else I’d be quite sad to see the Antarctic penguins go.
 
Beastking04 said:
Any guesses as to when the transfers & demolitions for the Penguins would begin? The last time I visited SWSD was Summer 2017, so the whole exhibit had the red lighting. It'd be a shame to miss the only Emperors in the country...
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I’d kinda prefer it sooner than later, it could change multiple facilities and possibly lead to an expansion at SWF or SWT. I do hope they don’t go to Abu Dhabi though…
 
USZOOfan42 said:
I’d kinda prefer it sooner than later, it could change multiple facilities and possibly lead to an expansion at SWF or SWT. I do hope they don’t go to Abu Dhabi though…
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Given they recently shipped birds from all SeaWorlds to Abu Dhabi, I'd be surprised if they sent more over right now. If anything they'll be split up between the other two SeaWorlds and/or other NA facilities.

Personally I suggest we avoid speculation until some sort of announcement is made by the park. I'd be quite surprised if they didn't make some sort of statement about it closer to whenever they were getting ready to take action.
 
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