Zoo Claims Worlds First Penguin Crossing
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Happy feet received a safety feat when zoo keepers at a Devon zoo in the UK installed a ‘pedestrian crossing’ for 80 African and Macaroni penguins — with claims to be the first ‘zebra crossing for penguins’ in the world.
Photo by Peter Surcombe, Torbay Council
Living Coasts in Torquay, Devon, enlisted help from Torbay council to paint the black and white markings to improve safety for the colony of penguins as they cross a public thoroughfare twice a day during feeding times to Penguin Beach.
The happy feet African penguins were continually bumping into visitors as they’d excitedly waddle their way across the road to be fed in a public area of the zoo, where they also roam freely amongst the visitors on the decking at Penguin Beach.
So Torbay Council’s road safety team created the world’s first zebra crossing on the public walkway to make it clear where the penguins cross during feeding time. The tiny black and white crossing is a scaled down version of a genuine zebra crossing and miniature red warning signs complete with penguins, reports the Daily Mail.
Photo by Peter Surcombe, Torbay Council
Senior Head Keeper Tony Durkin said, “We believe this is the world’s first zebra crossing for penguins.”
“It’s hard to teach a penguin road safety and when they see the bucket and their keeper they do get excited.” said the zoo’s Tony Durkin. “But the zebra crossing does alert visitors to the fact that the birds cross there.”
“They live on Penguin Beach but are fed in the public area which means a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing. The crossing has been put down to show visitors where the penguins cross the public walkway and to emphasize the need to take care.”
Photo by Peter Surcombe, Torbay Council
“It was a road safety issue so we asked the council to help by bringing in the road painter. The crossing is working well despite the fact that it involves black and white birds using a black and white crossing.”
Councilor Chris Lewis, of Torbay Council said, “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Living Coasts particularly highlighting the importance of safer crossing points.”
African Penguin Information
This species habitat is along coastlines, sea, sandy shores. They eat a wild diet of squid, crustaceans and fish such as anchovy.
Penguins waddle on land but are superb swimmers and divers. All penguins are adapted for cool conditions with jackass penguins occurring in South Africa where cold currents from the Antarctic pass along the west coast.
The male establishes the nesting site 
with a regular partner. Two eggs are incubated for 38 days in a burrow, typically in a sand dune.
The penguins are protected under South African law. Egg collecting was halted in 1969, although some still occurs illegally. Habitat destruction and over fishing, pollution, and stealing of eggs are their known threats.
Adoption
You can adopt any of your favorite animals at Living Coasts which will help Living Coasts and Paignton Zoo to increase their vital work in wildlife conservation.
Living Coasts Webcams
The webcam images at Torquay’s Coastal Zoo refresh every 20 seconds or you can click your browsers’ refresh button to see the new images. The zoo is working at creating live streaming for the web cams.
Sorry to Burst the Bubble
BUT, we’re sorry to burst anyone’s bubble, the concept for a penguin crossing wasn’t the world’s first ‘penguin crossing’, albeit that it may not have been a scaled down version of a ‘zebra crossing’. The City of Cape Town in South Africa was prompted by Cape Peninsula National Park managers to install what THEY claimed to be the world’s first ‘penguin crossing’ 4 years ago to caution motorists to slow down for their feathered pedestrians.
The colony of African penguins live amongst residents in a natural protected area at Boulders Beach, which forms part of the Cape Peninsula National Park.
Despite attempts by CPNP managers to contain the birds to the park area, some still ventured across the main road seeking suitable nesting areas during the annual breeding season.
According to Justin Buchmann, CPNP Section Ranger for the Southern Area, 19 penguins were killed by speeding motorists within 4 months that year.
“Main Road is a busy thoroughfare in the False Bay area, and although the speed limit was 40 MPH (60 kilometers), the penguins were difficult to spot, particularly at night.
When CPNP assistant section ranger, Monique Ruthenberg, raised the matter with the Cape Town traffic department, officials immediately replaced residents’ informal warning signs with an official ‘penguin crossing’ on the Main Road.
Be they the world’s first ‘penguin crossing’ or world’s first ‘zebra crossing’, it’s still pretty cool all the same.
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very cool……never heard of a macaroni penguin before either.
Haha, that is so cool, actually walking where the visitors walk as well. Guess they’re luring the penguins forward with food or something so they don’t completely scatter?
Hehe, hilarious
It was news to me too Steve
They’re such adorable creatures Slevi, I thought it was cool that they’re allowed to walk freely amongst the visitors. Can you just picture them waddling along as fast as a penguin can to get their food? Haha!
Alrighty then… this is too cool! We just watched Happy Feet the other night, and this made me smile. I love Penguins.
soooo cute Deborah……
I haven’t seen Happy Feet yet…….
I know a terrific joke about penguins….will email it to you
They are cute indeed. And while they look awkward and clumsey on land, they are flying aces in the water. I was in New Zealand doing some underwater diving work and was fortunate enough to witness a colony swim by. These little guys were ballistic missles underwater. Turning on a dime and reaching incredible speeds. It was amazing to see.
But, watching then walk around on land just makes you go “awwww”.
Geez Deborah, first Panda’s and now Penguins. All’s you need now is a story on Kuala Bears and you’ll have a trifecta of the worlds cutest animals.
Teri and Kim, I’ve never seen Happy Feet, but now I have a renewed interest to see it. I might have to ‘borrow’ a friend’s kid for an excuse, haha!
Nitropuppy, many of us wouldn’t really expect that penguins would be speed demons in the water, but it kind of makes sense that they would at least be avid swimmers.
Kuala Bears … not a bad idea
They are one of the most adorable creatures.
[...] stories: Zoo Claims Worlds First Penguin Crossing Worlds Longest Escalator Sand Castle to the Sun – New World Record King Tooth Pulls Train with [...]
that is soo kool!!:D
I agree Alysha