Gentoo Penguins
We are really excited to have a colony of Gentoo Penguins at SEA LIFE London
Aquarium.
In Ice Adventure you can journey through an icy landscape full of interactive features
and in the penguin viewing ice cave you can get a direct window into the habitat of
the Gentoo penguin as these magical creatures dive beneath the water and play in a
carefully created icy home from home.
Our penguins need to be fed two or three times a day to keep them well fed. We do
a combination of hand-feeding, where we individually feed each penguin by hand,
and scatter feeding, where we scatter the food in the water. Hand feeding allows the
penguins to get comfortable around those of us caring for them and used to human
contact, plus it gives us a good opportunity for us to monitor their health. Our
penguins mainly eat herring or sprat, both oily fish which keep our penguins healthy.
Our penguins also have regular weigh-ins, where we check the weight of each
penguin. They are individually identified by a small band above their wing, or by their
markings, and we record the weight as weight-loss is a key sign of illness or distress.
Every year, penguins undergo what is known as a ‘catastrophic moult’ at the hottest
time of the year when they lose all their feathers and grow new ones for the following
year. This can make them quite grumpy as they can’t swim without their waterproof
feathers, but it is a completely natural process and within a few weeks once their
new feathers have grown back they return to the water.
Like all animals, penguins produce waste. This is removed daily by us to keep their
enclosure nice and clean, and we hose down the ice to ensure no small pieces are
left. Being such friendly and interactive animals though, we need to be careful as
Gentoos love to chase the hose!
They are also great nest-builders, so we make sure that small stones are around so
they can build nests for their eggs as they would in the wild.
We also check the light levels and temperature to ensure that the penguins are kept
in the best environment and never get too warm or too cold. During the night, we
lower the light for them to get some rest, ready for another active day tomorrow!
Key facts

Gentoo penguins can grow to around 90cm high, and are the third largest of
the 17 species of penguin, after the Emperor penguin and King penguin

Gentoos are easily recognised by the wide white stripe across the top of its
head and long stiff tail feathers

They are more romantic than other penguins, and mostly stay with the same
mate from the previous year

Gentoos have two types of feathers, a soft downy woollen layer to keep them
warm, and a waterproof layer of feathers over the top to keep them dry

Gentoo penguins live in Antarctica, one of the coldest places on earth.
Antarctica is in the south, rather than the Arctic in the north where Polar bears
live

Penguin poo is called guano

Gentoos are nest builders, and they build their nests out of pebbles

A group of penguins is called a colony

Gentoos are very sociable animals and social structure is very important to
them

Gentoos are more fun-loving and charismatic than some species other of
penguin

Gentoos always lay two eggs, which will be incubated for over a month

When Gentoo babies are born, they will triple in size from 100g to 300g within
one week!

They have a very distinctive cry, often likened to a donkey bray. The noise
they make is so loud it can reach over 80 decibels - the equivalent of a diesel
train travelling at 45mph!