Video of Wellington the penguin exploring empty aquarium is a jolt of joy - The Guardian
Video of Wellington the penguin exploring empty aquarium is a jolt of joy - The Guardian |
| Video of Wellington the penguin exploring empty aquarium is a jolt of joy - The Guardian Posted: 17 Mar 2020 07:20 AM PDT  As people across the US and the world face up to the reality of closed workplaces, bars and restaurants as the coronavirus spreads, many have found some solace – through a penguin named Wellington. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his tiny horses urge people to stay homeA video of Wellington, a 30-year-old rockhopper penguin, was posted on Sunday by Chicago's Shedd Aquarium. It quickly spread online. With the aquarium closed due to the Covid-19 outbreak, Wellington was given the opportunity to visit parts of the building usually denied to a penguin, including an exhibit of Amazonian fish.
According to National Geographic, in the wild rockhopper penguins live "among the craggy, windswept shorelines of the islands north of Antarctica, from Chile to New Zealand". Given their native habitat, rockhoppers would not usually encounter Amazonian wildlife. Wellington's reaction to seeing the fish – part confusion, part unbridled excitement – warmed the hearts of many.
Others, however, were less impressed by the antics of Wellington and his fellow birds. "After their field trip how about giving them a long permanent big trip back to true freedom and their lands and waters?" one woman mused on Twitter. Rockhoppers are named for their distinctive method of transportation on land. Rather than slide about on their bellies, in the manner popularized by King and Emperor penguins among others, rockhoppers perform a double-footed hop from rock to rock. The penguins' affinity for rocks even extends to their nests, which rockhoppers create from a circle of stones, to stop eggs rolling away. Following the success of Wellington's ramble, on Monday two other rockhoppers were afforded an excursion away from their enclosure. Edward and Annie explored the aquarium's rotunda, with one video showing the pair meandering about in front of an information desk. Following the runaway success of Wellington's video, the Shedd aquarium said it would be sharing more animal updates in the coming days. "Yes," it added. "Wellington will return!"
|
| Coronavirus blues? Monterey Bay Aquarium live webcams offer wildlife diversion - The Mercury News Posted: 17 Mar 2020 03:25 PM PDT  Cooped up? Feeling anxious? Looking for a diversion for the kids? Or yourself? Until at least March 27, the Monterey Bay Aquarium is closed due to the coronavirus outbreak. But you can still visit its famed animals — from sea otters to sharks to hypnotic moon jellies — through 10 live webcams. And the online crowds are growing fast. "Our webcams are still streaming," said Julie Packard, executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, in a tweet on Saturday. "Until we reopen, you can check in on the sea otters, sway with the kelp forest, find tranquility with the jellies and look for wildlife out on Monterey Bay." The free webcams are available from 7 a.m.to 7 p.m. Pacific time, on the aquarium's Facebook page, its Youtube channel or the aquarium's website, at www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/live-cams. The webcams feature the sea otter tank, kelp forest tank, bird aviary, penguins, open sea tank, jellyfish tanks and live views of Monterey Bay.
Most of the aquarium's more than 500 staff members are working from home. But key employees are remaining at the Cannery Row landmark to maintain the building's operations and oversee the welfare of the animals. That includes security crews, workers who feed and care for the animals, and workers who maintain the tanks and other facilities. The sea otters, sharks, sea turtles, fish, birds and other wildlife at the aquarium cannot get the COVID-19 coronavirus, said Ken Peterson, an aquarium spokesman. They are still being fed on the same schedules as before. "The animals are doing great," Peterson said. "They are getting the same level of care as they were before. We're closed on Christmas day. So it's kind of like that for them now." In the middle of a typical day, about 120 people are watching the aquarium wildlife cameras online live at any one time. With the coronavirus outbreak and large numbers of workers and students riding it out at home, that number has gone up more than eight-fold in recent days, to more than 1,000, Peterson said.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium isn't alone in offering wildlife webcams. Other Northern California institutions that do include the Oakland Zoo, which has webcams for elephants, bears and other wildlife, the California Academy of Sciences, which features its coral reef, penguin exhibit, and a live webcam on the Farallon Islands, and the Ventana Wilderness Society in Big Sur, which showcases condors in the wild. "We're grateful to have the opportunity to lift people's spirits," Peterson said. "We can't welcome them in our doors but we are still there for them."On Monday, fans of the webcams gushed on the aquarium's Facebook site. "Watching from upstate New York. Thank you for something to laugh about!!!" wrote Nancy Rouse as the sea otters rubbed their paws together. "Thanks for sharing this feed!" wrote Toshiko Eng. "Something we all can enjoy during our county-wide shelter-in-place! Takes the stress away!" "We need this with no baseball, theater, or other normal activities," wrote Stuart Endick on the moon jelly cam. "Wish the jelly cam had TP!" |
| You are subscribed to email updates from "big fish aquarium" - Google News. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
Comments
Post a Comment