477 A Story About A Penguin

As a present to my sister from her friend, she and I went to London Zoo in Camden where we got to hang out with some penguins. It was possibly the best idea ever, although it was short and sweet. We only got about 20 or 30 minutes, but it was a cool experience. One thing I liked about the experience was that the Zookeeper said to us as we entered their area, that not all the penguins will come over as it is their choice, they don’t force the penguins to come over. It is good that they have the meet and greet but it is up to the animals too.

The main penguin they introduced us to was Ricky. Ricky was very particular about how anyone was allowed to stroke him, there was one specific part of his chest. If you stroked him a little too much to the left or the right, he would slowly waddle away from you. A penguin with a personality, I never thought I would meet a cheeky penguin. It was adorable; he has yellow feathers on his head which makes him a Rock Hopper Penguin.

What was it like to be close to a penguin, cute but also quite unnatural? It didn’t feel like I was meant to be meeting a penguin in the middle of London. Their habitat at the zoo was amazing, it was big. The zookeepers sort of left them to do whatever they want; they live in their environment without too much intervention.

For the most part, penguins are very friendly, they do bite, well bite is a big word they just rest their beaks on your hand, and they don’t put pressure down so I suppose you can’t call it a bite more of a peck. It doesn’t hurt at all. I can confirm no one got hurt during our experience. Now one thing I learnt in this experience is that penguins slap you with their fin, one of them slapped me but it didn’t hurt, it was quite funny. I could never in a million years describe the feeling of being slapped by a penguin.

A penguin fin does not have the feeling you would expect. I thought it would be quite flexible, but it is a solid wing. It would break if you tried to bend it. Although it was a cool experience to meet the penguins, I do not think it is worth the money it costs just to spend 20 minutes with a penguin.

There is no souvenir which shows you met the penguin. You don’t get a picture, a keyring a certificate or anything so what is it that you pay for? Considering it is £125 for the tickets to get into the zoo and meet the penguins for two people. Just a little excessive just to stand close to the penguins in their enclosure, there is a separate area in their enclosure where we met them, no one is allowed any further, so we don’t invade their space.

I would expect if the ticket were that much you get a photo, a certificate from Rocky the penguin, the opportunity to feed them or something. It was sort of a rip if I am honest. I hope they are using our hard-earned cash to improve the zoo and care for the animals.