With lockdown still in place all over the world, businesses are handling these big changes in their own unique ways. But it has to be said, one of our favorite things to read about is how the zoo animals are dealing with this new way of life – especially one particular type of feathered creature.
We’ve heard some amazing stories of penguins exploring aquariums and empty zoos, but today’s video is a new one. A zoo in the U.S. had the amazing idea of taking their penguins out of a day trip, and the video is one of the best things that we’ve seen.
When the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Missouri kindly invited penguins from Kansas City Zoo to visit their museum of fine art, zookeepers jumped at the chance. As the museum is still closed to the public, there was a perfect opportunity for the penguins to explore to their heart’s content.
The museum added some adorable pictures of the penguins living their best lives onto their Facebook page, and the zoo added a video on YouTube so that we can see just how much fun the penguins had on their special day out.
The video became instantly popular with over 250,000 views and 2k likes, and it’s not hard to see why!
Randy Wisthoff, executive director and CEO of Kansas City Zoo, told the camera:
“We’re always looking for ways to enrich their (the penguins’) life and stimulate their day.”
They didn’t hesitate to bring the penguins to the museum to check out all of the fine artwork, and judging by these pics, the penguins seem totally fascinated by it all! We can imagine that a museum makes a big change from their usual lives in the aquarium, and we’re pleased that they’re able to have the freedom to roam around instead of being stuck in the confines of the zoo.
Randy reflected on how the animals at the zoo are facing struggles with the current lockdown circumstances.
“During this shutdown period our animals really miss having visitors come and see them,” he said.
It must be upsetting to not be able to explain to the animals why humans have stopped coming to visit them, so giving them lots of treats at this time is very important.
So what did the penguins think of the artwork? Well apparently, these penguins appear to have a very specific taste. Randy said:
“They seemed to react much better to Caravaggio than Monet.”
As the penguins are originally from a Spanish-speaking country, museum staff also spoke to them in Spanish, so they felt right at home. It was such a sweet gesture for the museum to invite the penguins for a special day out and spread some positivity during these difficult times. Randy was full of appreciation for the gesture and said:
“The penguins absolutely loved it.”
These penguins are becoming more adventurous than us at the minute! Where do you think they’ll be off to next?
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