{"id":433384,"date":"2026-01-26T01:51:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T01:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/433384\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T01:51:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T01:51:29","slug":"beloved-penguin-walk-returns-to-calgary-zoo-for-14th-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/433384\/","title":{"rendered":"Beloved penguin walk returns to Calgary Zoo for 14th year"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is one of the highlights of a visit to the Calgary Zoo<\/a>: a chance to see the zoo\u2019s king penguins<\/a> waddle their way along the zoo pathways outside the Penguin Plunge.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On Wednesday morning, the first penguin walk of 2026 took place, with more than a dozen penguins dressed in their finest attire for the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cPenguins in the wild, they walk really long distances all the time. So this is a great way for us to kind of get them out, get them moving and get them doing something that\u2019s really, really natural for them,\u201d said Patrick Thompson, an animal care manager at the Calgary Zoo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re always super interested in doing it. They\u2019re always waiting for us, waiting by the door. They know when the penguin walk is. They know, when we start getting to this time of year, when we come in in the morning, they\u2019re lined up at the gate ready to go outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tThe penguin walk is a Calgary Zoo tradition that has been taking place for 14 years as a way to enrich the lives of the zoo\u2019s king penguins.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGlobal News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

This is the 14th year of the penguin walk. They range in age from two to 27 years old and they must voluntarily join the walk.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"For<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have a few birds here that have done all 14 years, so they know the drill, they know to walk and every walk\u2019s a little bit different. There\u2019s always new things, planes going overhead, reflections off somebody\u2019s watch, but for the most part, the king penguins are pretty reliable and we kind of know what they\u2019re going to do and they enjoy their walk,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe walk has changed a little bit over the years. The route has changed. We\u2019ve learned a little bit about what the birds prefer, so we\u2019ve kind of tailored the route of the walk, the timing of the walk all around, kind of making sure that we\u2019re walking as regularly as possible because it\u2019s really good for the birds and that the birds are as comfortable as possible as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tThe Calgary Zoo\u2019s penguin walk normally takes place on Saturday mornings from January to March, but also depends on the weather.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGlobal News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The penguins normally go for their morning waddle on Saturdays at 10:30 a.m., but it also depends on the weather. The temperature needs to be between 5 C and -25 C and they don\u2019t walk when winds are more than 20 kilometres per.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is one of the highlights of a visit to the Calgary Zoo: a chance to see the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,180230,48,295,16637,116223,66],"class_list":["post-433384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-calgary-zoo","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-good-news-calgary","tag-penguins","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}