After submitting my work on rainforest conservation to the Zoo Boise Possibilities Contest this year, I won a Behind the Scenes Tour at Zoo Boise‘s penguin exhibit. Along with Ethan and Taylor, the zoo employees on duty, I fed the penguins a bucket of small fish. Some of the terns in the exhibit even dove into the water to get lunch.

When we visited the zoo, we were met by Ethan, who took us to the penguin exhibit. Zoo Boise has an exhibit with five Magellanic penguins and three Inca terns, so we were able to watch the terns swoop around the exhibit while feeding the penguins, whose names were Bachelli, Jimmy, Puddin, Maria, and Isabelle. Magellanic penguins live in South America and the Falkland Islands. Zoo Boise is trying to create a captive breeding program with these penguins and Isabelle was the first chick who hatched in the zoo. In the picture above, Bachelli (top left) has a yellow band on his left wing. The other penguins’ bands are not visible.

Overall, the Behind the Scenes Tour was a great experience. I enjoyed feeding the penguins and I had a great time.

~The Orangutan Gang