No, these penguins are not dumb and do not pull stupid publicity stunts for money.
Black-footed penguins are referred to as ‘Jack Ass’ penguins because they make sounds similar to that of a donkey and recently a pair of them from the Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium visited Fox10 News in Phoenix, Arizona.
Dr. Grey Stafford frequently travels to Fox10 with various critters from the zoo to raise awareness about the animals and their current situations in our world.
This week the penguins stole the spotlight.
FOX 10 News | fox10phoenix.com
Captain and Pepper, a bonded pair of penguins, waddled around the station capturing everyone’s attention while Dr. Stafford educated viewers about Black-footed penguins and the problems they are facing.
First of all, these lively little birds are native to South Africa so they are temperate animals. Viewers also learned that a bonded pair of penguins are mated, meaning Captain and Pepper are a married couple!
On a more serious note, Dr. Stafford explained how loss of habitat and polluted oceans have lead to a huge reduction in the population. It used to be that there was 100,000 pairs of these penguins running around, and now they only number around 3,000.
Many organizations are trying to decrease the negative impacts of humans and rebuild the penguin populations. Dr. Stafford accredited SeaWorld as being the global leader in penguin conservation efforts and instrumental in the successes that penguins have had thus far.
Kudos to SeaWorld, Dr. Stafford and the Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium for raising awareness for these adorable ‘Jack Asses’!
Source: www.fox10phoenix.com