Results tagged “penguins”

        

Woodland Park zookeepers tossed soccer balls to some of their charges last Wednesday to commemorate the first round of the MLS Cup Playoff Western Conference Semifinals, which ended, of course, in a lame tie. The Sounders better win Sunday or AMY GET MAD!! Regardless, check out the 15-year-old, 850-pound grizzly brothers, Keema and Denali, demolishing the hapless balls while five-month-old snow leopard cubs Gobi and Batu and the zoo’s Humboldt penguins take a more friendly, frisky approach. The soccer balls are part of the zoo’s animal enrichment program which aims to promote natural animal behavior and keep the animals mentally stimulated.

RECOMMENDED For these Unclosings @ New City Theatre. Local visual artist phenom Susie J. Lee has taken her studious exploration of the transience of memory out of the art gallery in this collaboration with dancer/choreographer Ying Zhou. Utilizing some impressive technology, Lee has put together a dramatic live performance/art installation/dance piece that builds on her already impressive catalog of achievements. (1404 18th Ave. Fri. & Sat., 8 p.m. Tix $15.)

We're sad to report that one of the Woodland Park Zoo's Humboldt penguins has died. The 18-year-old male, Chiquito, formerly of Chicago's Brookfield Zoo, "died after a brief illness related to the ingestion of a sealant material used in a concealed pipe in the exhibit’s pool." No need to worry about the exhibit's other penguins--zoo staff have since located and removed the loose pieces of sealant, and two other penguins with similar (but less severe) symptoms are being closely monitored and show no signs of GI blockage. This is exactly why we need universal healthcare, people. Pour one out for Chiquito tonight.

FISH-SICLE FRENZY: It's hawt. And the zoo's Humboldt penguins need a cool treat, so they're getting 5-gallon “fishsicles,” a block of ice with small fish, such as herring and smelt. We're told the penguins are from what's known as a "desert" but apparently it doesn't get that hot there. So iced-up fish bits it is. Swing by at 3:30 this afternoon to catch the fish-sicle action.

• The light rail isn't even officially opened, and it's already getting grief (and being hit by cars too) from Tukwila residents, who are complaining about loud (88 decibels worth) of high-pitched squeaking from the recent light rail test runs.
• Yesterday, the Seattle Courant (which dubbed itself "Seattle's first online daily newspaper") kicked the bucket. Although the editor still believes "real journalism will survive the transition from analog to digital," he warns us all "it's just going to be scary for a bit."
• The P-I's Seattle 911 blog didn't get a warm welcome from the classy broads infamous Rick's dancers (awaiting the big bosses' legal outcome) who flat-out told the guy, "Newspaper reporters aren't good for us."

• Did you know Seattle has the second-highest percentage of LGBT residents of any American city? Huh, did ya? Now the Seattle's Convention and Visitor's Bureau is trying to find the tourist gold at the end of the rainbow. They plan to introduce the cities first LGBT Travel Guidethis week with the hope to entice the traveling gays.
• We wuv those cute widdle itty-bitty tuxedo-wearing penguins, whom we can now see swimming in their new $6.5 million home.
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AP photographer/videographer Ted Warren noticed we posted a video of the Woodland Park Zoo's new penguins yesterday and sent us this video to check out, featuring the Humboldt penguins and narration by the Zoo's penguin profiler Celine Pardo. It's an informative--and splashy--two minutes!

Above you can see the Woodland Park Zoo's Humboldt penguins in their new, quasi-natural environment. The exhibit opens to the public on Saturday, May 2, so you have to content yourself with video for a little while yet. The Zoo tells us "the penguins, 10 males and 10 females, arrived three weeks ago from five other zoos and aquariums," and were put in quarantine. They range in ages from one to twenty years old, and you can adopt a penguin for just $50, though confidentially we hear you probably want to avoid the teenagers.

The Woodland Park Zoo Humboldt penguins are gonna be pissed when they hear about this. Sure, their new fancy-schmancy habitat, set to open next summer, will be much appreciated, but knighthood? Priceless.