Don’t Worry, The El Paso Zoo Penguins will be “Climate-Appropriate”

Our outstanding local zoo is busy building a penguin habitat that will, hopefully, be ready for our flightless newcomers by the summer of this year.

Are penguins in El Paso?

Enter your number to get our free mobile app

In summertime? Has the zoo really thought this through?

Luckily, they have. It turns out that these won’t be South Pole penguins.

They won’t be North Pole penguins, since those don’t exist. Instead, they will be a species called “Magellanic penguins” that are native to Chile and Argentina and are more suited for warmer desert climes.

I know when I think of South America I’m usually picturing the Amazon jungle or Festival in Rio de Janeiro. The southernmost point on the continent can get plenty of colds.

These Megallanic penguins still look like what you think of when you imagine a penguin.  There’s the “classic” penguin, the Emperor which looks like this:

Check out those classy-looking bastards. The Magellanics look similar but are about a foot and a half shorter and have a scruffier-looking “tuxedo”.

Eh. Close enough.

Also, this variety of ‘guin is on the “threatened species” list.  So, the hope is that the initial twelve colonies will breed and grow.  Here’s a video from early 2022 about the ground-breaking ceremony.

So, this breed of penguin will be relatively comfortable in the El Paso desert during summer.

They’ll be able to swim in chilled water and even go inside if they need a dose of air conditioning.

I shouldn’t have to say this part but…please don’t sneak into the habitat and feed the penguins Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, OK El Paso?