Catalogue of Penguins in Captivity Worldwide

I don't know if it's relevant, but I have been in that USA place and the penguin house imitates strictly the Antarctic cycle of light, with all northern summer (=southern winter) in darkness and all northern winter in light. This means that during maximum season of visits, the penguin house is in darkness, so logically many zoos don't want to use the same method. All other penguin houses that I've visited during summer (Loro Park, Faunia, Wüppertal, Hellabrunn...) were illuminated. Emperor penguins as you probably know breed in full Antarctica continent during the winter, differently to all other penguin species that breeds in subantarctic islands, so that may be the reason.

 

Little blues have done very well in North America, in both Canada and the US. They bred very well in Canada in the '80s and '90s before almost the whole colony was sent back from Quebec to Australia. In the States they also breed very well. Bronx, Cincinnati, DWA and New England all have regular breeding, and some birds are pushing past the 3rd generation now, if I can recall properly.

The never established in Europe for two main reasons. Firstly, the founder population was quite small, and only a small number of institutions held them, with even fewer having breeding success (only Antwerp and Colonge bred the species, and between the two only a couple of birds were successfully bred). After that it would definitely be disease. Many of the birds in Europe, and most notably at Wuppertal (the last holder of the specie) died of aspergillosis. Even their large imported group of 30 birds in 2011 all perished from the disease within a year and a half.

In the asian countries they run into issues with asper and malaria with the birds, however some have managed to live for many years. My knowledge of the asian ppulation is minimal, however. In Japan most if not all of the birds are recent imports, so only time will tell how well they do with them.

As for emperors, it has everything to do with collection location and housing requirements. The reason they only established in Japan and San Diego is because the birds were collected in the 80's when husbandry was advanced enough to actually keep the birds alive to breeding age, and the birds went to facilities actually setup for antarctic species. Prior to this they were mainly housed in a similar fashion to king penguins, which resulted in birds not living long lives and never breeding. Along with need very specific housing requirements, their collection location meant they were rather difficult to collect, so only the most dedicated of facilities were willing to pursue them by the time their successful housing and breeding became a possibility, as opposed to going for the very similar, but more more established and durable king penguin.

As for the Chinese facilities, all of their birds were wild caught as adults within the past ten years or less. Their success has a couple of factors:

1.) Husbandry knowledge has advanced greatly, so enclosures to fit their needs were designed right off the get-go.
2.) Large founder populations were established.
3.)Money. The Chinese facilities working with these birds are all funded on MASSIVE budgets, so they are able to invest the capital in to good enclosures and collecting large populations of birds.

 

I didn't know Nanjing Underwater World existed, and will definitely make a visit this year. I also plausibly hope to visit Hangzhou Polar Ocean World and maybe even Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, the latter a late summer possiblity. Emperors would be a very nice lifetick!

 

Milwaukee County Zoo has Humboldt Penguins

 

It is probably worth noting that this species can be found in small numbers privately in the US.

 

Very interesting list, and I'm sure this was a very intensive project to work on! It is definitely a lovely resource to have.

I believe Loro Parque's king penguins are almost all wild-caught from South Georgia (The Avicultural Society » NOTES ON AN EXPEDITION TO COLLECT KING PENGUIN EGGS), so I expect those will be of subspecies A. p. patagonicus. I'm not sure if any swaps with the European stock have been made since the import, however.

 

Oregon and Woodland Park Zoo's are both holders.

 

Very impressive work!

Surprised no one has mentioned San Diego Zoo's African Penguins thus far, they received the species almost 2 years ago at least, and had upwards of 20 when I was there in December last year. San Diego is not listed as a holder in this thread though.

 

¿Sabes que hay nuevos inquilinos en el Zoo de León? ¡Te van a encantar!
Leon zoo has recieved 14 humboldt´s penguins. They came from Acuario de Veracruz and Parque de las Leyendas in Lima.

 

An interesting side note - Brookfield Zoo first attempted to exhibit Emperor Penguins not long after it opened in 1934, but they died of fungal infection very quickly. See here. They would later do extensive research on aspergillosis, by coincidence.

I can confirm that Lincoln Park currently has African penguins. The Penguin-Seabird House previously had King, Rockhopper and Chinstrap penguins for thirty years. Brookfield has had Humboldt penguins for twenty now - hard to believe.

 

Was just looking through this thread again, and SeaWorld San Diego has Magellanic Penguins, not Humboldt. I have several photos that can confirm.

 

Yes, Magellanics were on display last December. I did not see any sign of Humboldts, so I would assume they are off display. Curious, where did you find they had Humboldts as well? I saw Emperor, King, Adelie, Chinstrap, Gentoo, Macaroni, and Magellanic; being as all but Magellanic were firsts for me I was paying close attention. Wouldn't surprise me if they had another penguin species or two behind the scenes though.