Melbourne Aquarium penguins on show (plus protests)

Chlidonias

Chlidonias

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Melbourne Aquarium unveils new Antarctic penguins - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Australia's first collection of sub-antarctic penguins have gone on show at a new $28-million exhibition at the Melbourne Aquarium.
The collection features five majestic king penguins keeping a watchful eye over 13 other gentoo penguins.
Tristen Bird, the aquarium's bird co-ordinator says the gentoo penguins are extremely inquisitive and active.
"They have an enormous level of energy when they get up in the morning and really they are on the go all day long," he said.
He says the king penguins, with a splash of red around their throats are regal, majestic and reserved.
"They truly are the kings of the penguin world. They're a little bit more, I guess standoffish than their gentoo friends."
The penguins have been in Melbourne for two months and have just finished their quarantine period.
The animals were bred in captivity and have never actually lived in the Antarctic.
The enclosure is kept at below zero temperatures and tonnes of snow will be created daily to make the animals feel at home.
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Frosty reception for Melbourne Aquarium's penguin display | theage.com.au
Melbourne Aquarium's new penguin exhibit, which is meant to mirror a slice of Antarctica and requires a tonne of fresh snow a day, has received a frosty reception.
Opened today, the $28 million showpiece, which houses Australia's only collection of King and Gentoo penguins, has been accused of breaking an undertaking to animal welfare groups.

Penguins happy in icy new home
Melbourne Aquarium unveils a $28 million Antarctica expansion, complete with snow and ice to keep its penguins happy
Animals Australia claims the aquarium has abandoned a planning deal with Melbourne City Council - made before the establishment opened in 2000 - that penguins or seals would not be exhibited.
The animal welfare group's executive director Glenys Oogjes said she was terribly disappointed.
"Now matter how much they have spent, penguins swim hundreds of kilometres in search of food. Putting them in an enclosure sends entirely the wrong message," she said.
"It is not educational, it is entertainment."
The exhibit has doubled the footprint of the aquarium and includes a temperature controlled environment, a 100,000 litre pool and a light cycle that changes to replicate the short winter days and very long summer days of the Antarctic seasons.
The aquarium's management says the exhibit was installed under the supervision of the RSPCA and changes were made on their recommendations.
Communications Manager Daniel Petrillo denied any non-penguin agreement had been reached with Animals Australia or any other group.
"Absolutely not. We had no agreement not to exhibit penguins, seals or anything else.
"The only agreement we had was not to exhibit the little blue penguins so as not to compete with Phillip Island.
"We have gone with the advice of the leading animal welfare body in Australia and we have their written endorsement. In business you never say never to anything."
But the RSPCA's national president Dr Hhugh Wirth denied any written agreement had been given. He said his organisation had looked at plans and given recommendations.
"We will do an inspection next month," he said.
"We thought we might object to the exhibit in principle, but in the end we are reasonably happy about it all."
The exhibit includes five 95 centimetre tall King Penguins and 17 of the 85 centimetre Gentoos. All were captive bred in a New Zealand zoo. The aquarium expects 900,000 visitors a year.
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there's a video on the second link
 
Nice link Chlidonias, and two things shocked me. First of all, the penguin exhibit cost $28 million? Holy smokes that's a ton of cash, even if it is in slumping Aussie dollars. Secondly, the aquarium expects 900,000 visitors per year? I wonder how many visitors they have been receiving over the past few years, as I visited in the summer of 2007 and it's easy to see everything in 2 hours or less.
 
glyn said:
$28 million for penguins! id rather invest in elephants
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I'd rather it went to the Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat program, the Western Swamp Tortoise, the Dibbler, Orange-bellied Parrots, Regent Honeyeaters, Delma impar, Eastern Barred Bandicoots, or any number of other native endangered species.

:)

Hix
 
You could probabley build very successful exhibits for all 7 species at a lower cost. $28 million seems like a hell of a lot.
 
glyn said:
$28 million for penguins! id rather invest in elephants
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Couldn't agree more! The aquarium is pretty easy to get through, I find that it isn't very, .... well it is hard to describe it is lacking that ommpf! For some reason I found Sydney's much better!

I'm preety interested viewing these peguins though, :)
 
It will be good to see but like everything else at Melbourne Aquarium once will be enough.
 
PAT said:
It will be good to see but like everything else at Melbourne Aquarium once will be enough.
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Good point, in my opinion, I think there isn't much change in activity of the creatures in there, I think that climate changes behaviour, I love to study have animals react to different things. In the aquarium there isn't much of the weather changing at all,
 
You are all unbelievable. You spend so much time lamenting the lack of new species in Australian zoos and when someone actually imports two brand new species into the country you complain that they have spent too much money on the project.
 
Guepard said:
You are all unbelievable. You spend so much time lamenting the lack of new species in Australian zoos and when someone actually imports two brand new species into the country you complain that they have spent too much money on the project.
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Well they have. Sure it is nice to have them but for that amount of money we could have jaguars, leopards, malayan tapir, etc.
I also agree with Hix about the native species that could have benefited.
 
Now which one of you Aussies is going to visit the aquarium and post a whole bunch of photos onto ZooChat?
 
I have to say that I agree with what Guepard said earlier. I know you all hate Melbourne Aquarium but you guys are always complaining about not getting new species or losing existing species in Australia, and now you are complaining about new penguins. I reckon you'll find that it is actually extremely expensive to construct an Antarctic environment in a warm climate, even if they hadn't had to build an entire new building to house it in.

The money for this project simply wouldn't have been available for programmes for wombats or dibblers or elephants, because it was raised by an aquarium! Its like people saying that the money that it cost to build the Bronx's Congo exhibit should have been used for protecting rainforest -- it wouldn't have been available for that purpose. So saying you'd prefer it if the funds had been used for something else is completely irrelevant.
 
We know the money wouldn't have been available for the other projects, I just think $28 million is a hell of a lot to spend on two new species, especially when natives are at risk of going extinct because of lack of funds.

:)

Hix
 
I'm sorry that I took so long to tell you guys but I saw the penguin exhibit on Wednesday.
I was impressed, not $28 million impressed but I'm not the one deciding how to spend their money. The exhibit is in an "L" shape...in the long part of the L is a flat snowy part that has big floor to cieling windows to view through and this is where the Gentoo penguins seemed to hang out. In the short part of the L is a deep pool with underwater viewing and this is where all the King penguins were.

Just my luck that my camera battery went flat on the train to Melbourne so only some phone camera photoes that I will try and upload tomorrow.
 
Thanks for the brief review Pat. Is it still really expensive to visit the aquarium? Did the cost of admission increase with the addition of the penguin exhibit? Is the aquarium actually larger now that it has penguins, or was a section used that had been empty before?
 
Guys, guys, cut the facility a break.
They did not spend $28million to build a tank full of snow. They substantially expanded the aquarium - as near as I can gather - and the penguins are the stars of this expansion. The funds were spent to add to the revenue generating capacity of the aquarium as well as display penguins. It is all part of a much bigger redevelopment of the area which in total may well attract more visitors. And besides, King penguins are VERY impressive and gentoos are fun...too

"The Melbourne Aquarium includes enhanced retail, food, beverage and educational facilities and services. The expansion also provides additional floor-space for the Aquarium’s 5 Star Functions business, and will provide guests the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dine with the penguins."

Major Projects - Former Fish Market site

http://www.melbourneaquarium.com.au/admin/downloads/4422163352511200874141PM-.pdf
 
Adult entry into Melbourne Aquarium is now $31.50. In comparison Sydney Aquarium is $29.95, Kelly Tarltons is $29.90 and neither of these facilities have spent $28 million expanding their operations recently.

Further more Taronga Zoo is $39, Australia Zoo is $53, Cairns Zoo is $31 etc so expense is really all relative.
 
They extension that houses the penguin facility includes a new entrance and pretty well done in terms of themeing and greatley cuts down the amount of wasted space. Before the renovations the ticket office was right in the centre of the aquarium and now that whole section is freed up for more renovations but one thing I noticed is that there is still a lot of big empty spaces that could still be renovated.
I got in for about $19 because I have a concession card.
 
I can't remember the last time I went to the aquarium, but I do know that they try to advertise it a little over the top. e.g shark fest, creppy crawlers. Though I'd like to revisit cause I haven't seen a penguin other that a Fairy. In over 9 years... I can't really remember that well at 5.
 
I'd never seen a penguin species other than little penguins either and I saw the gentoos and was like "holy crap they're so big" so you can imagine my response when I saw how big the king penguins were.
 
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