SAN DIEGO — The journey to love starts with an early morning filled with back-breaking work.
Emily Allen is a senior zoological specialist and part of the crew that’s moving 20,000 pounds of river rock into the Penguin Encounter habitat at SeaWorld San Diego.
“We had a really good breakfast and did a little bit of team stretching before we got up here,” Allen said with a laugh.
The “rock day” kicks off the breeding season for gentoo, chinstrap, macaroni and Adélie penguins. Under the watchful eye of this year’s penguin bachelors, the keepers work to put the rocks in place.
“As we go, we’re just rinsing these rocks, shoveling them, making sure we’re filling them out in a nice, even layer and giving them really great zones to build their nests in,” Allen said.
Melissa Ramsey is the supervisor of Penguin Encounter and said each season brings a new dating game.
“Penguins aren’t nearly as monogamous as they get the reputation to be,” Ramsey said. “Don’t get me wrong, a lot of them will return to the same nest location as years prior, but every once in a while, you have a high divorce rate and you’re going to be surprised as to who has paired up.”
Ramsey said the rocks play an important part in the penguin’s courtship. They begin to collect them, pair up, build their nests and lay their eggs. Some of the couples wasted no time claiming their favorite rocks and nesting sites before the work was even done.
“So it’s an automatic pairing, no divorce this year for them,” Ramsey joked.
SeaWorld San Diego is renowned for its successful penguin breeding program and has made a worldwide impact on pioneering techniques for rearing penguin chicks. Since 1980, hundreds of chicks have hatched and been raised here, including the first-ever chinstrap and emperor penguins.
The team will keep track of the pairs to monitor the genetics of the penguin population, as well as help with research for wild penguin conservation.
“Every year when we open the rookery, we’re excited to see who’s dating who,” Ramsey said. “We keep these generations going and as healthy for as long as possible.”
It’s hard work to play matchmaker, but Allen said it’s worth every drop of sweat to give their birds a chance at love.
“I’m hoping that we give them enough amazing parking spaces to build their nests to where they feel very comfortable and ready to start laying eggs this season,” she said.
The breeding season matches the austral spring and summer in Antarctica, now through January. The penguins will constantly rearrange the rocks until chicks are grown and leave the nests.
Macaroni and gentoo penguins are usually the first to lay eggs as October begins. Their chicks start to hatch in mid-November. Adélie penguins begin to lay eggs in mid-October and their chicks start to hatch in late November.