New digs for penguins planned if voters approve Oregon Zoo bond

The Oregon Zoo’s Humboldt penguins could get a better nest under the zoo’s plans for future upgrades.

Metro is seeking a $380 million bond to upgrade parts of the zoo, including a new habitat to replace the aging penguinarium.

The zoo is home to 19 Humboldt penguins, with another three eggs nearing hatching time.

Humboldt penguins are named for the Humboldt Current, a cold ocean current that runs along the west coast of South America, where the penguins are from. Humboldt penguin populations have been reduced by guano mining, which destroyed their nesting sites; the fish they eat being taken by commercial fishing; and harsh seasons of El Niño.

“We’ve come a long way in our understanding of what these animals need,” Marcus Jason, the zoo’s supervisor for birds, herps and small mammals, said of the penguins.

The habitat has held up to 35 penguins, though Jason said that was a tight fit. Most of the nesting spots are built into the rock habitat, but zookeepers have had to set up crates for additional nests.

The penguin habitat was built in the late 1950s, originally as an open-air habitat.

The Oregon Zoo got its first Humboldt penguins in the late 1970s. Since then, 193 Humboldt penguins have hatched at the Oregon Zoo. The habitat underwent a major remodel in the early 1980s, enclosing the space for climate control specifically for the Humboldt penguins.

The habitat got more upgrades in 2011, this time focused on the water system. The entire 25,000-gallon pool previously had to be drained and refilled every week. The new water system offers more filtration to remove the scum generated by the oil in penguin feathers, meaning the pool only has to be fully drained twice a year. Staff regularly pressure wash surfaces and siphon the bottom of the pool to remove debris.

Penguins are greasy little creatures. A gland in their tails produces oil, which they pick up with their beaks and spread around their feathers to maintain their waterproof coverage.

To prepare for molting each year, Humboldt penguins eat as much as they can. They shed their feathers rapidly in a “catastrophic molt” and then quickly regrow a full new set of feathers. The extra-naked penguins can’t hunt for food while their feathers regrow because they can’t swim without their waterproof protection.

Humboldt penguins are classified as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which estimates there are fewer than 24,000 mature Humboldt penguins in the world.

One of the goals in the zoo’s new campus plan, which is still being developed, is to allow for greater species diversity.

“The focus there is not so much on specific animals but on areas/environments, knowing that we need to stay flexible enough to support evolving species-recovery needs and new priorities in a rapidly changing world,” zoo spokesman Hova Najarian said.

Though a greater diversity of species is a priority, the campus plan primarily emphasizes improved habitats for the animals already at the zoo.

“Gone are the days of menagerie,” Jason said of shoving as many species as possible into cramped cages for viewing.

A brand new home

The planned new penguin habitat would be fully new construction, rather than another remodel of the existing habitat.

“The current thinking is the penguin area would not be located in the precise footprint of the current structure, but it would be in the same part of the zoo. The square footage would likely be increased,” Najarian said, noting that the design concepts are still very preliminary because in-depth design work won’t happen until there’s funding for the project.

The new penguin habitat at the Oregon Zoo likely won’t have a roof. In the decades since Humboldts came to the Oregon Zoo, zoos like Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle and St. Louis Zoo in Missouri have learned that Humboldts can thrive in open-air habitats.

The new build would mean “having a blank slate for our life support team to build out,” Jason said. In zoos and aquariums, life support describes the workers and systems used to make an artificial habitat suitable for an animal on a daily basis — not an emergency medical response like that used for people.

The typical clutch size in the wild is two eggs, but only one usually survives. At the zoo, staff can take one egg from a couple and give it to another couple to incubate, increasing survival rates.

Penguins are monogamous and mate for life. The Oregon Zoo has one same-sex couple, who coupled up after their opposite-sex partners died.

The penguins compete for nesting spots and other resources, occasionally moving from yells and small nips to full-on fights.

“When they do actually get in a fight, we have to let them settle their differences,” Jason said.

Penguins are very vocal, sometimes yelling to assert their claim to a nesting spot. From the current visitor area, separated from the habitat by thick glass, the penguins can only be heard faintly, even on a quiet day at the zoo.

The current habitat does have some major things going for it, like accommodating the Humboldts' need for speed. Humboldt penguins can swim up to 30 miles an hour, but in artificial habitats where their pools are rectangular, they can’t build up fast speeds between rounding sharp corners. The penguinarium pool around the dry land area where the birds nest and rest is a circle, allowing faster swimming.

But the aging penguin habitat is a threat to the zoo’s continued accreditation with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which it has maintained for 50 years.

“The penguin exhibit is not aesthetically pleasing and appears outdated from a guest perspective, and animal care staff would benefit from improved and expanded work areas,” inspectors noted in 2022.

“We operate on a pendulum of care and sometimes we’re right on the mark and sometimes we’re off,” said Jason, who has worked at the Oregon Zoo for 17 years. “I always will look at the habitats and think there are things we could do better.”