Welcome to our new academy site, I work with our African penguins 5 days a week.  They are challenging and rewarding to work with.  Every week I will add a new post updating on the colony, the exhibit or individual birds.  To start, the photo is of our new exhibit located in Africa Hall.  It represents Boulders Beach in South Africa, a location where these penguins are found in the wild.  We mimic their natural environment including changing the air temperature, water temperature and lighting through the days and year.   The Penguin cameras are for us and for you to enjoy.  They are designed to work under very low light conditions.  At night even though it may look bright in the exhibit, the exhibit is dark and the penguins are at rest.  We are excited to have you join us with the latest in technology and care of these African penguins. 

This is Pierre our oldest penguin standing in his new home in Golden Gate Park.   You will be able to find out more about Pierre and the rest of the African penguins in late September.  As for now biologists are busy putting together new Aquarium exhibits.  We are all looking forward to the Academy opening on 27 September 2008.

Ocio has very unusual marking for an African penguin.  Most African penguins have large black cheek patches and a single stripe on their chest.  Ocio has small cheek patches and a second stripe on his chest.  The chances of these markings occurring in the wild is 1 in 4,000. 

Howard and Safara are juvenile penguins.  They are young birds with dark head feathers.  Young penguins often imitate the older penguins and court each other.  Howard has been flirting with Safara.  He often will bow his head to her.  Safara will often follow Howard around.  The human equivalent to these behaviors are hand holding and kissing.

There is a penguin behavior study currently going on.  This is our Saturday Afternoon Crew observing and recording. Every 10 minutes the observers write down where every penguin is located and how it is behaving.  This study has been going on annually since 2004 and assists the staff by making sure every penguin is being closely tracked and monitored.