Featured Image Credit: SeaWorld via Youtube
By K. Snyder
Looking spiffy!
This is Wonder Twin, she’s an Adelie penguin at SeaWorld Orlando. Last October, she began to experience some unexpected feather loss that left her looking naked and mangy.
Penguins rely on their feathers for waterproofing and for protection from the cold waters of the environments they inhabit. In captivity or in the wild, widespread feather loss such as the kind Wonder Twin experienced can be fatal.
Normally in such circumstances, the effected penguin would need to be kept out of display, away from their peers and in a temperature-controlled environment to regulate their body heat. But the care staff at SeaWorld Orlando felt that this was not a solution for Wonder Twin.
The veterinary team at SeaWorld collaborated with the animal care staff and SeaWorld’s costume department to create a unique solution to Wonder Twin’s problem. They constructed a penguin-sized wetsuit for her that would allow her to continue swimming and foraging with her fellow penguins while her feathers grew back.
The suit worked perfectly and made Wonder Twin a bit of a local celebrity at SeaWorld. She could be easily spotted wandering around the Antarctica exhibit.
Just this past January, caretakers removed the wetsuit. During the time she wore it, Wonder Twin was able to grow in a whole new set of healthy feathers to regulate her body temperature naturally. She returned triumphant to the water, minus her special wetsuit.
Wonder Twin may have lost her spiffy suit, but this Adelie is still lookin’ fine!