00:00Fin-tastic. These Humboldt penguins from Wingham Wildlifes Park show off their graceful moves
00:20in the water, native to coastal lines of Peru and Chile. They are strong swimmers, reaching
00:26speeds of up to 30 miles per hour despite their awkward movement on land. Here keepers encourage
00:35the penguins to display natural behaviours such as nest building by offering them a daily
00:40walk where participation is entirely up to them. So I've wandled over to Wingham Wildlife
00:46Park to see their penguins in action during their morning exercise and let's just say
00:52they're really winging it.
00:54They begin their morning walk with some encouragement, usually in the form of fish. Then the penguins
01:00follow a path around the grassy area near the enclosure, collecting treats as they go.
01:05The morning exercise is really important for them. It gives them a chance to have a mooch
01:10about and go out and about. It's good for enrichment for them. It's something that's completely
01:15up to them. So some days we'll do it and only two or three will want to go out. Other days
01:20will have nearly the whole group of 18 come out. So it's something which they do enjoy
01:24doing it. But yeah, especially around breeding season, they love going out and just picking
01:32up leaves and little stones and things to bring back for their nests.
01:36In the wild, Humboldt penguins live on rocky coasts and islands. They like to make their nests
01:41in places with guino because they can dig burrows there. It might sound gross, but the waste helps
01:46them build safe homes. The real problem is that guino is also a great fertilizer. So
01:52people collected a lot of it in the 1800s. This ruins many penguin nesting spots and disturbed
01:58the birds, causing their numbers to drop. But Wingham Wildlife Park has been successfully
02:04breeding Humboldt since 2013, aiding the survival of their species. So it seems that all it takes
02:10to make a penguin happy and healthy is water, food and a daily waddle. Happy feet indeed.
02:16Maisie Walker for KMTV, Canterbury.
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