Mr. Popper’s Penguins, the movie birds with the orange beaks and orange feet, came from the Antarctic.
So did the emperors in March of the Penguins, living on ice planes where wind chills can plummet to -76 degrees.
But the 17 penguins that call the Akron Zoo home might have never seen snow if they didn’t live in Ohio. They’re Humboldts, a variety of endangered penguin that comes from a desert climate along the coasts of Chile and Peru.
On Saturday, as bundled up children dropped tiny smelt — bait fish whose name matches their odor — into Humboldt beaks, the flightless birds could have sought shelter in their heated burrows. But the South American natives seemed content standing around Northeast Ohio’s freezing January temperatures watching the people who came to watch them, occasionally diving into their heated pool to dazzle the crowd by gracefully flying through the water.
“They’re charismatic animals,” said Vicky Croisant, the zoo’s senior wild animal keeper, explaining why the birds so often end up in movies.
“Every penguin has a different name. Every penguin has a different personality,” she said. “Taking care of them is a lot like managing a kindergarten class.”
The zoo this month is showing off its colony of Humboldts every weekend during an ongoing event called Penguin Palooza.
The Samaco family of Cuyahoga Falls stood on an elevated platform overlooking the penguins. Leia Samaco, 5, wore her favorite penguin shirt under her winter coat.
“I like to watch them eat,” her 8-year old sister, Anna, said. “I don’t think they chew ... they just swallow,” Marie Samaco, 10, added.
Either Anadeo or Bibiana, the zoo’s two juvenile penguins who were hatched on site, slipped into the water nearby.
They look different from the older penguins because the horseshoe-shaped band on their fronts isn’t fully formed. In Spanish, Anadeo means “waddle” and Bibiana means “full of life.”
Desmond Costlow, 6, wearing a Star Wars hat and hot chocolate mustache, said he has a stuffed penguin named Peter. His sister, Naomi, 8, has a stuffed lion named Linda.
“Have you seen the video of the penguin in Japan that goes fish shopping?” Naomi asked.
In the video, which has gone viral online, a king penguin named Lala wears a penguin backpack and reportedly walks by herself to a nearby fish market where a shopkeeper feeds her fish and puts fish in the backpack for Lala to carry home.
“Penguins,” Naomi concluded, as either Anadeo or Bibiana takes another pool lap against the clear glass behind her, “are so interesting.”
Amanda Garrett can be reached at 330-996-3725 or agarrett@thebeaconjournal.com.