Exhibit Details

The new Humboldt penguin exhibit at Woodland Park Zoo will incorporate exciting new features both for its bird inhabitants and their zoo fans. Not only will the new exhibit significantly update and modify every element beyond the existing one, but it will also create an inspiring and educational setting for zoo-goers to learn more about these fascinating birds and discover actions they can take to help them survive in the wild.

What guests will experience
The current exhibit was originally built in 1947 for seals and sea lions. The new exhibit will be fun and engaging, with a “wow” factor to better engage and inspire guests and provide an enriched home for up to 20 breeding pairs of Humboldt penguins, showcasing their unique swimming skills, natural behaviors and life cycle.

Some of the features of the new exhibit include:

• Prime viewing through a 30-foot-long thick glass barrier about four to five-feet high. Guests can either look underwater for penguins swimming past, or look out over the water at groups of penguins standing on the land. Water levels at this view will be low enough for young children and those in strollers or wheelchairs to easily see the penguins.
• A representation of the coastal desert shorelines of Chile and Peru from where Humboldt penguins come ashore, complete with rocky tide pools, moving water, and ocean “currents” that the penguins will utilize as they swim.
• Nesting areas where you can actually see penguin pairs nurturing and raising their young.
• A children’s “splash zone” where they can play and be surprised by a blowhole where water will occasionally spurt out.
• A fishing boat sitting as if it were dragged onto a beach giving visitors they feeling they are in a fishing village in Peru, home to the world's largest Humboldt penguin conservation reserve.

Water and energy conservation
We're designing with nature in mind! Using the earth's natural systems, the entire exhibit will save approximately 3 million gallons of water and 75 million BTUs of energy each year! That's the equivalent of saving 24 million pints of drinking water and heating five new, two-bedrooms townhouses each year. How are we doing this?

State-of-the-art engineering allows the new penguin exhibit to help us reduce our environmental footprint. The plant roots and microbes in a "constructed wetland," similar to a natural wetland, will filter the penguin pool water as it becomes dirty, or nutrient-rich (think feathers, fish and poop!). This natural filtration system will return purified water to the penguin pool. This means a pristine water environment for the penguins and no pollution entering our lakes, streams or Puget Sound. One-hundred feet below the exhibit, deep tubes will use the earth's thermal reserves to maintain the penguin pool at the birds' ideal water temperature of 50-60 degrees---heating it in winter and cooling it in summer. It's only natural!