penguins in uk

No zoos in Europe currently keep Emperor Penguins, but there were a number of zoos that kept them in the past, including Chester, Bristol and Edinburgh (according to zootierlist.de)
 
This thread could have a lot of potential. Is there any general penguins in the UK thread? Because I would actually be interested to find out. I can remember Humboldt and African penguins being the most popular throughout the zoos I visited (in fact every zoo I visited had at least one of these two species). I also saw a few rockhopper penguins at London Zoo but if I'm not mistaken they may have moved.

What about any sub antarctic species? Doesn't Edinburgh have a large colony of Gentoo penguins outdoors? And London Sealife was advertising a penguin exhibit while I was there. Are there any king penguins around or more unusual species like macaronis?
 
Living Coasts have Macaronis, London had them recently but these moved to Living Coasts. Twycross have also had them in the recent past.

Humboldt are definately the most common, but some others of note:

Magellanic penguins at Blackpool are the only ones [on-show?] in the UK.

Belfast have a different species of rockhopper to everywhere else in the UK.

I wish I'd seen the little penguin at Bristol but unfortunately that hasn't been there for several years now I think.

Other than that I'm struggling to think of anything else that stands out, a few places have gentoos and Black-footeds are probably the second-most-common.

I would love to see Emperor penguins and Galapagos penguins personally, but both are probably the least likely species to end up in British Zoos [Galapagos due to the restrictions of importing species from the islands, and Emperor's due to their highly delicate nature and the fact the die from heat VERY quickly]
 
King penguins at Edinburgh (or have they all been moves temporarily?) & birdland.
 
Javan Rhino said:
Of course, they're all at Birdland at the moment, so Edinburgh only hold Gentoos and Rockhoppers [Northern].
Click to expand...

Thanks for confirming that, i had a feeling i'd read they'd all gone to birdland.

Another species once fairly common in the UK in the 70s/80s that has almost vanished from our zoos!
 
PAT said:
This thread could have a lot of potential. Is there any general penguins in the UK thread? Because I would actually be interested to find out.
Click to expand...
this is the earlier thread (from 2010): http://www.zoochat.com/38/penguin-population-122885/

and the (modified) summary of that thread:
so in the UK there are:
1) king penguin
2) gentoo
3) Moseley's rockhopper (moseleyi)
4) Western rockhopper (chrysocome)
5) macaroni
6) jackass (African)
7) Humboldt's
8) Magellanic

the other species of penguins not in the UK currently are:
9) little blue
10) emperor
11) adelie
12) chinstrap
13) Eastern rockhopper (filholi)
14) yellow-eyed
15) Snares crested
16) erect-crested
17) Fiordland crested
18) Galapagos

other forms:
19) white-flippered (if split from the little blue which few authorities do)
20) royal (if split from the macaroni)
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top