{"id":263167,"date":"2026-01-29T06:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T06:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/263167\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T06:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T06:00:07","slug":"long-island-freeze-even-too-much-for-penguins-at-riverhead-aquarium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/263167\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Island freeze even too much for penguins at Riverhead aquarium"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even penguins have had enough of the\u00a0post snowstorm chill\u00a0that has\u00a0Long Island in its grip.<\/p>\n

The 19 penguins at the Long Island Aquarium<\/a> in Riverhead are riding out the freezing days and nights in the single\u00a0digits inside. And with highs on Long Island forecast to stay below freezing<\/a>\u00a0until at least\u00a0Monday, inside a\u00a0climate-controlled room at the aquarium\u00a0they’ll stay.<\/p>\n

Certain species of the bird \u2014 familiar to most for its seeming ability to thrive amid icebergs and frozen tundra\u00a0\u2014\u00a0are less able to handle extreme cold, according to Joe Yaiullo, curator and co-founder of the aquarium.<\/p>\n

“I grew up as a kid, and I\u2019m sure a lot of us have grown up, with images of penguins on ice in the Antarctic and things like that, but there are a number of penguin species that never see ice in their lifetime in the wild,”\u00a0\u00a0Yaiullo told Newsday.<\/p>\n

The aquarium houses one of those species:\u00a0the\u00a0endangered African black-footed penguin<\/a>,\u00a0native to southern Africa. “Low 50s, maybe mid-40s is how low it\u2019s going to get in South Africa,” said Maggie Seiler, assistant curator of penguins and reptiles at the aquarium.<\/p>\n

When temperatures drop below 30 degrees, and in harsh conditions like cold winds and rain, staff bring the penguins indoors and out of the cold, said Candy Paparo, the aquarium’s director of animal training.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When it is too cold for them, they can experience the same things that we see,” Yaiullo said. “They can get frostbite. They are standing on their feet the whole time, so their feet are in contact with the cold ground \u2014 which is not healthy for them. They can see respiratory concerns.”<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t worry, though. Visitors\u00a0can still peek at the penguins through a viewing window that is part of the birds’ indoor enclosure.<\/p>\n

Aquarium staff make sure to play with the penguins indoors to keep them mentally and physically active, Seiler said.<\/p>\n

They also come indoors every night throughout the year for security reasons, Yaiullo said.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s part of their normal routine,” he added. “Just another day.”<\/p>\n

Paparo said they also bring in\u00a0Fisher,\u00a0the aquarium\u2019s fishing cat<\/a>, when temperatures drop. The fishing cat species is native to Southeast Asia, northern India and Sri Lanka.\u00a0Fisher came to the aquarium from Texas and is used to warmer climates.<\/p>\n

Other animals in outdoor enclosures, like the North American river otter, can withstand the colder weather, Paparo said. But those animals, too, will be put inside if the weather gets too harsh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even penguins have had enough of the\u00a0post snowstorm chill\u00a0that has\u00a0Long Island in its grip. The 19 penguins at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[55236,85,46,141,4254,1481,386],"class_list":{"0":"post-263167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-environment-and-nature","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-suffolk","13":"tag-weather","14":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}