The elderly penguins withdraw with style on their island in this Boston aquarium

The high African penguins at Boston’s New England have received their island, where fish level fish and vitamins are fed, and cuddle with acupuncture and physiotherapy sessions.

This new set-up comes after Senior swimmers had difficulty fighting for their food and space with younger penguins.

“Animals, especially penguins, can be territorial, especially during the nesting seasons or the breeding seasons,” said Kristen McMahon, curator of Pinnipeds and Penguins for the animal care team at the New England Aquarium, How it happens It hosts Nil Köksal.

“The oldest animals are a little less involved with the behavior of the territory.”

Since the animals in captivity live much longer than their wild counterparts, aquariums and zoo are emitting new methods to take care of the animals that age, while they work for the conservation of the species in the end of the extinction.

Get gray feathers

The life expectancy of African penguins varies between 10 and 15 years in nature. Some of the residents of the New England Aquarium are doubled it. The oldest, good hope, is 35 years old.

The residents of the island include Harlequin, 32, Durban, 31, Boulder, 34, Isis, 29, Lambert, 32 and Dyer, 14. Good Hope and his partner, St. Croix, 23 years old, will join them soon.

McMahon says that the penguins survived so long because of their diet and the lack of threat and human pollution.

“They have many predators (in the wild) who will put the animals who are a little bigger or that move a little more slowly,” Macmahon said.

“We give these animals individualized care and our maximum priority is the well -being of animals”.

This type of personalized care, he says, “is the key to longevity”.

With the age they arrive mobility problems, which have made it difficult for these geriatric penguins to obtain food on the main island, where the younger penguins pushed them through during the feeding sessions.

To help with mobility problems, aquarium veterinarians give the acupuncture or physical therapy of older penguins so that they can continue to swim.

“Some of our oldest birds have spinal problems,” explained Dr. Melissa Joblon, director of Animal Health, at the CBC. “So we will move the legs, joints and limbs in different ways … to increase their range of movement.”

Joblon said that the penguins also have an obstacle course on their island to make them move.

A species in the process of extinction

According to the International Union for the conservation of natureAfrican penguins are an extinction species. The New England Aquarium aims to fight this by encouraging couples couples.

“I think many people see some beautiful photos and assume that those populations are going well, but they are not,” he told CBC Dolf Dejong, CEO of Toronto Zoo.

Toronto’s zoo hosts more than 20 African penguins and Dejong says that the conservation work done by zoo and aquariums can help change in African waters.

“One of the key pieces we are doing to start is to get the information that is at risk in people’s hands,” he said.

He said the zoo is in a position where they could send healthy penguin eggs in African countries if they see a decline of the wild population.

Dejong said that not long ago the populations of African penguins were in millions, but over the years it has reduced to about 20,000 penguins.

The New England Aquarium and the Toronto Zoo both commit themselves to educating people on the conservation of extinction species.

The New England Aquarium sent one of their penguins in South Africa last year to help rehabilitate a saved penguin. They are trying to do the same this year.

Dejong also had the opportunity to visit a beach in South Africa and look at a conservation team helping penguins.

“They are outside the beaches ensuring that when (these penguins) they are on the ground, they are protected,” explained Dejong. “In the case of abandoned eggs or young chicks, those people actually enter the same structure in which they can be rehabilitated and released. And you can see the impact and success of this in the annual relationships.”

The next steps … or swim

Joblon says that even if the island is fantastic, the team is still planning to make some changes.

“Those who find themselves on this geriatric island Penguin can get up quite well on the rock, but we intend to make it more accessible,” said Joblon.

The next step of the aquarium is to put the ramps and other similar structures so that the penguins can easily crawl.

Penguin personality

Both Joblon and Dejong say that each penguin brings his personality to the table.

“They are different like you and me as regards different personalities,” said Dejong. “He is humiliating and a little frightening when you think about it”

Joblon said he is certainly exposed to the geriatric island of the New England Aquarium.

Some, he says, are “very nice and cuddly” and “I really like scratching the neck or scratching my back.”

“It’s very nice,” he said. “They are intelligent enough and they are very nice.”