Jurong Bird Park penguins move from zoo to Jurong

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TODAYonline | Singapore | A new home
Ten feathered friends from the Singapore Zoo were moved early yesterday morning to their new home at the Jurong Bird Park.

From next month, visitors to the Bird Park will be able to view the first outdoor enclosure there featuring these African Penguins, also known as Jackass Penguins, for the loud braying sounds they make. For these endangered species, the new enclosure not only promises more space but boasts special landscape features like a pool and artificially generated waves.
Jurong Bird Park of course already has an indoor exhibit for Antarctic penguins.

According to ISIS the zoo has 27 jackass penguins (and Jurong already has 16.17.90 Humboldt's penguins although I suspect the "90" is a misprint for "9"!!)
 
for those interested ISIS also lists for the Antarctic exhibit: 5.5.16 king penguins, 1.3 macaroni penguins, 2.0.9 southern rockhoppers, 0.0.1 eastern rockhopper, and 0.0.1 northern rockhopper
 
TODAYonline | Singapore | A new home

Jurong Bird Park of course already has an indoor exhibit for Antarctic penguins.

According to ISIS the zoo has 27 jackass penguins (and Jurong already has 16.17.90 Humboldt's penguins although I suspect the "90" is a misprint for "9"!!)

Although I don't think Jurong's ISIS records are updated, "90" is not impossible for the Humboldt colony! I'm not sure if it still stands, but Jurong has laid claim to having the largest colony of Humboldt's bred in captivity.

There's also a small colony (probably less than 10) of Fairy Penguins housed in the indoor exhibit with the other 4 species.
 
A Singapore Minister also approached the Minister of Foreign Affairs here in Iceland on the subject of obtaining Icelandic puffins for Jurong recently while he was here on offical visit. Our Minister seemed positive about it on the news, but wheather he can or has any actual interest in making it happen, not to mention when, remains to be seen.
 
Zooish said:
Although I don't think Jurong's ISIS records are updated, "90" is not impossible for the Humboldt colony! I'm not sure if it still stands, but Jurong has laid claim to having the largest colony of Humboldt's bred in captivity.

There's also a small colony (probably less than 10) of Fairy Penguins housed in the indoor exhibit with the other 4 species.
I was wondering if Jurong updates ISIS regularly or not (hence if the different rockhoppers are actually all there or not.... I must make a point of perusing the penguins properly next time I'm there - there can't be many other collections with three types of rockhoppers on display!).
I must admit I didn't even bother checking for little blues on ISIS because I didn't think there were any at Jurong
 
A Singapore Minister also approached the Minister of Foreign Affairs here in Iceland on the subject of obtaining Icelandic puffins for Jurong recently while he was here on offical visit. Our Minister seemed positive about it on the news, but wheather he can or has any actual interest in making it happen, not to mention when, remains to be seen.

That's interesting. Jurong already has a big colony of Atlantic puffins (I would estimate about 30 to 40 birds) so I don't quite get why they need to acquire more.
 
I was wondering if Jurong updates ISIS regularly or not (hence if the different rockhoppers are actually all there or not.... I must make a point of perusing the penguins properly next time I'm there - there can't be many other collections with three types of rockhoppers on display!).
I must admit I didn't even bother checking for little blues on ISIS because I didn't think there were any at Jurong

I don't think the rockhopper records are accurate. Most times I'll see only 2 rockhoppers in the exhibit.

I have this vague memory that the little blues were gifts from New Zealand, although I cant find any info about it on the web.
 
The biggest humboldt penguin colony in a Zoo is the one in Dierenpark Emmen (Netherlands) with 140 birds.
 
Zooish said:
I have this vague memory that the little blues were gifts from New Zealand, although I cant find any info about it on the web.
from page 26 of Singapore's The Straits Times, 19 December 1990: "Twelve fairy penguins, a donation from Sydney's Taronga Zoo, will soon be on display at the Jurong BirdPark. The flightless birds are an official gift from Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke to former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, the BirdPark said in a statement. "
(the link I found it on is Newspapers - The Straits Times, 19 December 1990 but I can't access the actual article, only the first few lines as posted above)
 
The biggest humboldt penguin colony in a Zoo is the one in Dierenpark Emmen (Netherlands) with 140 birds.

Thanks for the info lintworm. Jurong appears to have a colony of about 100 humboldts, which is not too far behind.
 
from page 26 of Singapore's The Straits Times, 19 December 1990: "Twelve fairy penguins, a donation from Sydney's Taronga Zoo, will soon be on display at the Jurong BirdPark. The flightless birds are an official gift from Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke to former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, the BirdPark said in a statement. "
(the link I found it on is Newspapers - The Straits Times, 19 December 1990 but I can't access the actual article, only the first few lines as posted above)

Yes, I remember Australia gifting Jurong fairies, but for some reason I remember New Zealand being associated with Jurong's fairies. Perhaps Air NZ sponsored the fairies' flight.
 
So, what are the actual numbers of penguins then at Jurong Bird Park.
Fairies: 10?, Humboldts: 80+?, jackass: ? and rockhoppers: ? :confused:
 
@Kifaru

10 Jackass for sure as they've just been transferred from the Zoo.

For the rest, its anyone's guess as I don't think Jurong updates its ISIS records diligently. :)

My guesstimate (from what I can see in the exhibit during visits):
Kings: 20+
Rockhoppers: 4
Macaroni: 4
Humboldt: 70-90
Fairy: 6
 
Penguins get new home

Penguin Coast has opened and the current penguin population at Jurong has been put at 91 in total. Guesstimate of the individual species numbers:

1. African - 10 (accurate)
2. Humboldt - about 45
3. King - about 25
4. Macaroni - about 3
5. Rockhopper - about 3
6. Fairy - about 4

So it is confirmed that Jurong doesn't update ISIS...
 
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