Harewood Penguins

In the Bird Garden we have a flock of 11 Humboldt Penguins - 5 pairs and a spare female which was hatched here. The group numbers used to be as high 18 Penguins, but this was reduced several years ago down to the present numbers to stop fighting over the choice of nests. The first Penguins of the present group arrived in August 1989 and three are still here and still doing well at just over 20 years of age.

The Penguin enclosure was designed in 1969 to replicate the coastline of Peru in South America where the Humboldt Penguins come from, with swimming pools of different depths and area, and a rocky slope leading to a plateau area. In the wild they nest in rocky scrapes, in sea caves, among boulders and in burrows along islands or rocky sections of the coast. At Harewood we’ve built stone huts to replicate nest burrows. There are more nests than we need to give the Penguins a choice and we supply twigs for nesting material.

The adult Penguins have a unique pattern of spots on their white chest area, which is like a fingerprint and stays the same throughout their lives. Some visitors to Harewood know which is 'their' Penguin from the pattern and can point it out. Each penguin has ared, yellow, blue, green and black coloured wing tag-on the left wing for a female and on the right wing for a male - showing which family group it belongs to.

Scientific name: Spheniscus Humboldti
Other common name: Peruvian Penguin
French: Manchot de Humboldt
German: Humboldtpinguin
Spanish: Pinguino de Humboldt
Native: Petranca
Lifespan: In zoos Humboldt Penguins males don’t live beyond 28 years and females beyond 25 years of age, but at Harewood the oldest penguin age has been just over 20 years, so far.

Plumage

Both sexes are similar with males slightly larger than females. Chicks hatch in a dense coat of down, which later changes to a denser down layer. Chicks moult into their juvenile plumage before they are two to three months old, when the grey down is replaced by water-repellent plumage. The immature Penguins have a brownish head with greyer cheeks and lack the white head stripe and black horseshoe shaped breast band of adults. They have a grey iris which changes colour later on when they gain full adult plumage.

Feeding

In the wild the Humboldt Penguin feeds on anchovies, squid and sardines that are found in the Humboldt Ocean current of the West coast of Peru. At Harewood we feed them whitebait and sprats, fish that are similar in size to their natural diet, although they will also eat small Herrings. They usually feed just after sunrise at a depth of around 1 metre.

Fascinating facts

The Penguins have supra-orbital glands at the base of the beak, which in the wild enable them to deal with the extreme levels of salt in their diet. The excess salt is excreted in a concentrated saline solution, which tends to dribble down the bill. At Harewood we give the Penguins salt and vitamin tablets with their fish.

Penguins have a uniform covering of feathers over their bodies, unlike most other birds, which have alternating feathers and bare tracts. The feathers overlap each other, in order to improve their performance in both insulating and waterproofing the body. This plumage is highly wind resistant and remains smooth and compact in winds upwards of 60km/h.

Humboldt Penguins moult their feathers in one go, over several weeks. During the moult  Penguins tend to eat a lot more fish and as a result put on almost 31% extra weight. The old feathers then fall out and are replaced by new ones. By the time the new plumage is fully waterproof the Penguins have lost all their extra weight. For about 20 days, until the moult is complete the penguinshave a scruffy, moth eaten look.

They can swim at speeds of up to 2.4 meters a second in captivity compared to 1 meter a second when hunting for food in the wild, and the maximum recorded dive was down to 80 metres deep.

Swimming adaptions

Unlike most water birds Penguins do not use their feet as paddles, but it is their wings that provide the propulsion, along with the tail for steering. Penguins have solid heavy bones, as weight is not an issue because they only fly underwater, not through the air. Normally, body weight is just slightly less than the volume of water a Penguin displaces, so it’s easy for them to dive and swim in the water.

Humboldt Penguins usually stay under water for around a minute, before coming up for breaths, but can manage up to around two minutes, depending how deep the anchovies are that they are hunting for. 

Feed the Penguins

Get up close to the Penguins by helping the keepers feed them. You need to be aged ten years or above to feed the Penguins and it costs just £10. Find out more.