A 28 Year Old Penguin (Store)!

Penguins don’t usually live to age 28 in the wild, but an all-penguin store is another thing!  Yes, 28 years ago today on March 15th 1985, a generation and a head full of hair away, Next Stop…South Pole opened its pushcart doors on the 2nd floor of the old Fulton Market Building at South St. Seaport in New York.  If you need to know, the first penguin item we sold was a pack of penguin band aids to a woman who had very painful shoes.  Within a few months, we moved to a kiosk, and a year later to a permanent store on the newly opened Pier 17 at the Seaport, and from there our long waddle to 2013 continued.  Different locations, mail order catalogs, The Penguin Post Newsletter, moving to something called the internet and a name change to Penguin Place, moving from Brooklyn to Northampton, Mass and now another name change to the more search engine friendly Penguin Gift Shop.

28 years, not bad for a crazy idea of selling nothing but penguins.

Next Stop South Pole and Eric in 1985

A Penguin Picture Worth The Wait

As told to the Penguin Post it took eight hours lying on the cold, hard ice in Antarctica to get the perfect shot, but for Penney Hayley the long wait was worth it.  The Western Australian photographer snapped this picture of an Adelie penguin shooting out of the ocean at Cape Denison in Commonwealth Bay during a cruise with Orion Expeditions.  “I love the look on his face,” she said. “I don’t know who got the biggest shock – him or me. “I reckon if he could have pedaled backwards he would have.” The image is one of the ten finalists in week 14 of the Escape Your Holiday photo competition in Australia Ms Hayley, 50, from Kununurra, took more than 10,000 photographs during the 19 day trip, but this was one of her favorites. “It’s a very restricted area and there’s only 100 people allowed at any one time,” she said.”We had a window of opportunity where we had really, really good weather which is quite good for Antarctica. “It was the most surreal experience. “The penguins are often getting chased by leopard seals.” While it looks like a predator in the background, Hayley said it was actually another penguin about to jump out.

Penney Hayley, from Kununurra in Western Australia, took this wonderful photo during a cruise to Antarctica.

Happy Feet In “Training”

With the recent cold snap it may seem like perfect weather in New Zealand for a penguin to make long swim, but Happy Feet the penguin will not start his journey home until he has first-class travel booked to a release point somewhere much further south in the Southern Ocean.  The Penguin Post has learned that Happy Feet is in training for his eventual trip home by eating and resting, which is a perfect penguin way to train for a 2000 mile swim.  He now weighs about 60 lbs. and is healthy enough to be released, but the Department of Conservation is still looking for the best travel choice, which would ideally provide optimal conditions for the penguin, said Wellington Zoo veterinary science manager Lisa Argilla.  The young penguin won global fame when he turned up on Peka Peka Beach, north of Wellington, last month. The penguin has since had various procedures to remove sand, sticks and rocks from his stomach.  Aside from his weight, the penguin’s travel-readiness also depended on his body condition, personality and demeanour, all of which were normal, Dr Argilla said. “There are a lot of factors we need to consider just to keep him safe on the journey, so we just need to work through that and make sure we take him down south and have a successful release. “We are not prepared to rush that, obviously – because if you rush it, it’s going to go wrong.” Happy Feet would be taken from Wellington to Invercargill either by air or in a refrigerated truck, DoC biodiversity programme manager Peter Simpson said. A boat leaving Bluff, 18 miles south of Invercargill, would take him to a point past Stewart Island where he would start his swim of more than 1800 miles. Travel would have to be approved by Dr Argilla based on how stressful it would be in the temperature and the time-span of the journey. “It’d have to be a boat that can take the penguin that has some form of chilling on it, that can take the media, and that is licensed to go that far south,” Mr Simpson said. Dr Argilla said the penguin was being fed salmon once a day. Because of the unusually cold weather in Wellington yesterday, Happy Feet took a swim in the Wellington Zoo saltwater pool, the zoo said, before returning to his cold room. The emperor penguin is believed to have swum about 2000 miles from his Antarctic home to Peka Peka Beach. The only previous recording of an emperor penguin in New Zealand was at Southland’s Oreti Beach in 1967. Emperor penguins are the largest penguins. The adults reach nearly four feet tall and weigh up to 75 lbs. They feed on fish, krill, squid and a wide range of marine invertebrates, can dive 600 feet deep and spend 11 minutes underwater.

Happy Feet in training for marathon swim

Penguin Place Welcomes A Pair Of New Penguins

Pee Wee is an adorable 5" tall Emperor Chick Plush

Two new cute penguin plushies arrived this afternoon that have been added to our igloo. If you must know they are called Pee Wee and Puddy. O.K. what do you expect for names they’re penguin stuffed animals after all?  Don’t forget penguin place fans this months 10% off coupon shopping code is only available through our Penguin Place Facebook Fan page.
Tomorrow… we will be once again waddling down memory lane with our 3rd installment of our 25th Anniversary Next Stop… South Pole / Penguin Place history series.  Part 3 is “Baltimore, The World and Beyond”

Puddy is one cool plush puppet

The Go Penguins Are A Go

The Penguin Post has learned that at long last more than 200 decorated glass fiber penguins have officially  gone on display in Liverpool this week as part of the city’s Year of the Environment.  The Go Penguins artworks were decorated by celebrities, schools and community groups. Colonies of the colorful, flightless birds can be seen across Liverpool, Wirral and St Helens until 10 January.  They are being used to highlight the dangers of global warming and polar ice melting. One of the more heralded penguin sculptures is from Birkenhead-born television and radio presenter Paul O’Grady who designed a penguin called “Owl Ma Penguin” which was inspired by his childhood memories of older women from his hometown.

Some of the more than 200 colorful penguins of Liverpool