Ah, fall in San Antonio. This refreshing season gives us south Texans the chance to finally give our overworked air conditioners a break. We can crack open our windows, and pull out our favorite sweatshirt from the closet. But there is a place right here in the Alamo city where it is not fall at all…It’s spring! Where is this magical place that falling leaves, Friday night football and back to school forgot? Why, the Penguin Encounter at SeaWorld, of course!
While the endless falling snow at the Penguin Encounter might give you the impression that our penguins live in a perpetual winter wonderland, nothing could be farther from the truth. It is absolutely vital that these specialized seabirds experience all four seasons, for failure to do so would impact their molting (loss and re-growth of feathers) as well as their breeding. And so how do our penguins know its spring? They don’t have a cute penguin calendar, of course. What they do have is a highly sophisticated lighting system, designed to mimic the light cycle of the sub-Antarctic.
By “highly sophisticated” I mean so mind-boggling and complex that the very sight of it makes me want to back away slowly in my green rubber overalls. Thankfully, at SeaWorld we have an amazing team that includes electricians and lighting specialists, and with their assistance we ensure that our Polar lighting system provides the penguins with the proper light cycle. And if you were to travel south of the equator, down into the southern hemisphere where penguins are native, you would see that the seasons are reversed - they are experiencing their springtime as we are enjoying our cool fall temperatures.
And springtime in the Penguin Encounter is exciting! A visit now will reveal a very busy group of black and white waddlers. The chinstrap, gentoo and rockhopper penguins are hard at work impressing potential mates and creating their nests, which they build from the over seven tons of river rocks that we hauled in for them. And the kings? Most of them are in the process of molting, which is when they lose their old feathers and grow in new ones.
The Gentoo penguins are the first to lay their two eggs, typically starting in late October. Next are the rockhoppers, usually in early November, followed by the chinstraps in mid November. The kings are last, and don’t lay their single egg until January or February. The larger the species, the longer the incubation period – King penguins incubate their egg approximately 53 days, gentoos about 36 days, chinstraps 35 days, and rockhoppers 32 days.
So come on by the Penguin Encounter for a taste of sub-Antarctic springtime. See if you can find some penguin nests! Maybe you’ll get to witness a sneaky gentoo penguin stealing rocks from his next-door-neighbors’ nest while they’re out for a swim, or see a pair of chinstrap penguins swaying side by side together, demonstrating to one another and the rest of the flock that they are a committed couple. Sure, we all love fall, especially after a summer of triple digits. But if you want to experience spring break a little early, we’ve got just the place for you here at the Penguin Encounter!
