Watch: Geriatric penguins get new ‘retirement island' at New England Aquarium
The Brief
The New England Aquarium in Boston expanded its penguin exhibit to better observe their "geriatric penguin" population.
African penguins typically live between 10 and 15 years in the wild.
Some of the penguins at the aquarium either meet or exceed the typical life expectancy.
The New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts, expanded its penguin habitat after "more than half" of the colony met or surpassed the species' typical life expectancy in the wild.
"Our goal is to take a proactive approach to managing geriatric animals in an environment that better meets their physical and behavioral needs," said Kristen McMahon, the Aquarium's Curator of Pinnipeds and Penguins.
The backstory
African penguins typically live between 10 and 15 years in the wild, according to the aquarium.
More than half of the penguins that are in the aquarium's care are living far longer than that.
To accommodate their aging penguins, the aquarium created a separate island from the main penguin colony that would provide the animal care team with a bird's eye view to easily monitor the animals.
"Careful records are kept on each penguin's behavior, feedings, and more so that staff can quickly spot changes that might be indicative of ailments that afflict older penguins, such as foot injuries and cataracts," according to an aquarium news release.
Aquarium staff transitioned six penguins to their new island home over the past month.
Harlequin: 32 years old
Durban: 32 years old
Boulders: 34 years old
Isis: 29 years old
Lambert: 32 years old
Dyer: 14 years old
What they're saying
"We think of this island like assisted living, where we're helping the birds be more comfortable in a calmer environment," said Diana Major, Manager of Penguins.
Dig deeper
African penguins are a critically endangered species, according to the aquarium.
The main threats plaguing these animals are climate change, habitat loss and pollution.
The species typically lives on the coasts of South Africa and Namibia.
These penguins, like many others, enjoy eating small fish such as anchovies, sardines and horse mackerel.
They can grow to be between 23 and 25 inches tall and can weigh five to nine pounds.
The Source
Information for this article was gathered from The New England Aquarium in Boston and Storyful. This story was reported from Los Angeles.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Historic Juneteenth document debuts in Dallas
The Brief The only known original Juneteenth General Order No. 3 will be on exhibit at Fair Park's Hall of State in Dallas starting June 19. The historical document signifying the end of slavery in Texas was brought to Dallas by a Galveston newspaperman, G.B. Dealey. The exhibit is free and will continue to be on display through the end of the State Fair of Texas. DALLAS - The only known remaining, the original Juneteenth General Order No. 3, will go on exhibit at Fair Park's Hall of State on June 19. Civil rights leaders said it is special that Dallas gets to have this special piece of history. The only known copy of the order that symbolized the end of slavery both here in Texas and in the United States. What we know The Dallas historical society says their founder, a Galveston newspaperman, G.B. Dealey, brought this original copy of General Order No. 3 to Dallas, when he moved here from Galveston to start the Dallas Morning News. Executive director, Karl Chiao, says Dealey's family donated the hand bill to the historical society in the 1960's. "They came to Texas with a stack of bills passing them out. The only one that kept them was a newspaper in Galveston," said Chiao. "When we went through it, we realized we had one of the original hand bills that had been passed out to let slaves know they were free in Texas." Collections curator Kaitlyn Price says the order was recently framed in special glass that will protect it from UV light, as well as dust particles. "There are a few printed versions. This is the only one we know of that is an original-printed version signed by General Granger himself," said Price. "[This document] would have been posted in town squares, city halls and carried by union soldiers." The backstory The order guaranteed the "absolute equality of personal rights". Once on display to the public on June will be surrounded by other interactive exhibits that show how the order was received with firsthand accounts that often included the phrase, "you are as free as I am." Marvin Dulaney is the deputy director of the African-American museum and spoke on the historical significance of this document. "It is one of the significant documents in American history that signifies the end of slavery in Texas and the United States," said Dulaney. "It means a lot to me that we have this here in Dallas, of all places. Signifies Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 took another 2.5 years before it got to Texas, but when it got to Texas it was conclusive for ending slavery in this country." What they're saying Levi Davis, the first African American assistant city manager in Dallas, will be part of the panel discussions. He says change in Dallas took a long time. "Dallas was a different place. I became in charge of the police department and I called the police chief who reported to me. But he wouldn't answer the phone because I was black, although I was his boss," said Davis. What's next The document will continue to be on display through the end of the State Fair of Texas. The exhibit will be open to the public, starting with a panel discussion here on Thursday, June 19 at 6:30 pm. It is free, but a reservation is required. The Source Information in this article was provided by interviews conducted by FOX 4's Lori Brown.
USA Today
a day ago
- USA Today
Watch: 'Cinnamon' the bear spotted in backyard pool for first time since LA fires
Watch: 'Cinnamon' the bear spotted in backyard pool for first time since LA fires Show Caption Hide Caption Cinnamon the bear makes poolside return A neighborhood bear was seen for the first time since the Eaton Fire in January, taking a dip in a homeowners' pool. A local bear beloved in a Los Angeles County neighborhood made a splashy return to the public eye after not being spotted for nearly half a year. Residents in the city of Pasadena had begun to miss "Cinnamon" the bear, who was no where to seen since the Eaton Fire devastated the city in January. However on Wednesday, June 4, resident Ramona Mucciolo found the cherished mammal taking a dip at her home pool. Surveillance footage shared online shows Cinnamon chilling around the pool, cooling down ahead of the summertime. "I was in the kitchen looking out and she walked around to the shallow end and got in," Mucciolo told Storyful. Mucciolo said she lived across the street from the San Gabriel Mountains, which the destructive wildfire wrecked the area, particularly California's Altadena community. The Eaton Fire, along with the Palisades Fire burned over 37,000 acres for nearly a month killing at least 29 people. "Several bears frequented our neighborhood," she said. "Since the fire, none had returned until June 4, when Cinnamon showed up and relaxed in our pool. We rejoice at least one bear has survived the fires." 525-pound bear remerged from fires in February Cinnamon is not the only bear to rise from the ashes. In February, a 525-pound black bear was found hiding under the home of Altadena resident Samy Arbid, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The adult male, well-known to neighborhood residents as Barry, was discovered crouched in a crawl space beneath the home when a utility provider came to restore power. Bear finds refuge under an Altadena home during Eaton Fire A 525-pound bear was found under an Altadena home after the deadly Eaton Fire in Los Angeles, he was lured out to safety with treats. "I think during the fire he pretty much stayed there. I think he was scared," Arbid told local media outlets, according to Storyful, adding he "couldn't believe it." After a nearly 24 hour process, Barry exited the crawlspace and triggered the trap door within minutes from CDFW officials placing a trap. He was then transported to the Angeles National Forest, received a welfare check and a GPS collar before safely returning to the wild. Contributing: Saman Shafiq, USA TODAY
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
African prisoners made sound recordings in German camps in WW1: this is what they had to say
During the first world war (1914-1918) thousands of African men enlisted to fight for France and Britain were captured and held as prisoners in Germany. Their stories and songs were recorded and archived by German linguists, who often didn't understand a thing they were saying. Now a recent book called Knowing by Ear listens to these recordings alongside written sources, photographs and artworks to reveal the lives and political views of these colonised Africans from present-day Senegal, Somalia, Togo and Congo. Anette Hoffmann is a historian whose research and curatorial work engages with historical sound archives. We asked her about her book. About 450 recordings with African speakers were made with linguists of the so-called Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission. Their project was opportunistic. They made use of the presence of prisoners of war to further their research. In many cases these researchers didn't understand what was being said. The recordings were archived as language samples, yet most were never used, translated, or even listened to for decades. The many wonderful translators I have worked with over the years are often the first listeners who actually understood what was being said by these men a century before. The European prisoners the linguists recorded were often asked to tell the same Bible story (the parable of the prodigal son). But because of language barriers, African prisoners were often simply asked to speak, tell a story or sing a song. We can hear some men repeating monotonous word lists or counting, but mostly they spoke of the war, of imprisonment and of the families they hadn't seen for years. Abdoulaye Niang from Senegal sings in Wolof. Courtesy Lautarchiv, Berlin275 KB (download) In the process we hear speakers offer commentary. Senegalese prisoner Abdoulaye Niang, for example, calls Europe's battlefields an abattoir for the soldiers from Africa. Others sang of the war of the whites, or speak of other forms of colonial exploitation. When I began working on colonial-era sound archives about 20 years ago, I was stunned by what I heard from African speakers, especially the critique and the alternative versions of colonial history. Often aired during times of duress, such accounts seldom surface in written sources. Joseph Ntwanumbi from South Africa speaks in isiXhosa. Courtesy Lautarchiv, Berlin673 KB (download) Clearly, many speakers felt safe to say things because they knew that researchers couldn't understand them. The words and songs have travelled decades through time yet still sound fresh and provocative. The book is arranged around the speakers. Many of them fought in the French army in Europe after being conscripted or recruited in former French colonies, like Abdoulaye Niang. Other African men got caught up in the war and were interned as civilian prisoners, like Mohamed Nur from Somalia, who had lived in Germany from 1911. Joseph Ntwanumbi from South Africa was a stoker on a ship that had docked in Hamburg soon after the war started. In chapter one Niang sings a song about the French army's recruitment campaign in Dakar and also informs the linguists that the inmates of the camp in Wünsdorf, near Berlin, do not wish to be deported to another camp. An archive search reveals he was later deported and also that Austrian anthropologists measured his body for racial studies. His recorded voice speaking in Wolof travelled back home in 2024, as a sound installation I created for the Théodore Monod African Art Museum in Dakar. Chapter two listens to Mohamed Nur from Somalia. In 1910 he went to Germany to work as a teacher to the children of performers in a so-called Völkerschau (an ethnic show; sometimes called a human zoo, where 'primitive' cultures were displayed). After refusing to perform on stage, he found himself stranded in Germany without a passport or money. He worked as a model for a German artist and later as a teacher of Somali at the University of Hamburg. Nur left a rich audio-visual trace in Germany, which speaks of the exploitation of men of colour in German academia as well as by artists. One of his songs comments on the poor treatment of travellers and gives a plea for more hospitality to strangers. Stephan Bischoff, who grew up in a German mission station in Togo and was working in a shoe shop in Berlin when the war began, appears in the third chapter. His recordings criticise the practices of the Christian colonial evangelising mission. He recalls the destruction of an indigenous shrine in Ghana by German military in 1913. Also in chapter three is Albert Kudjabo, who fought in the Belgian army before he was imprisoned in Germany. He mainly recorded drum language, a drummed code based on a tonal language from the Democratic Republic of Congo that German linguists were keen to study. He speaks of the massive socio-cultural changes that mining brought to his home region, which may have caused him to migrate. Together these songs, stories and accounts speak of a practice of extracting knowledge in prisoner of war camps. But they offer insights and commentary far beyond the 'example sentences' that the recordings were meant to be. As sources of colonial history, the majority of the collections in European sound archives are still untapped, despite the growing scholarly and artistic interest in them in the last decade. This interest is led by decolonial approaches to archives and knowledge production. Sound collections diversify what's available as historical texts, they increase the variety of languages and genres that speak of the histories of colonisation. They present alternative accounts and interpretations of history to offer a more balanced view of the past. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Anette Hoffmann, University of Cologne Read more: Rashid Lombard: the photographer who documented both resistance and celebration in South Africa 3 things Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o taught me: language matters, stories are universal, Africa can thrive Mbare Art Space: a colonial beer hall in Zimbabwe has become a vibrant arts centre Anette Hoffmann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
