Christmas is getting closer and we penguins got to meet Father Christmas the other day, he came to Living Coasts with toys for the boys and girls who come to visit us. He also dropped in to see us penguins on the beach, brought us a present of fish and had his picture taken with us. Lucky man, I think that made his year! (Click the link to read more)

I call the class to attention, your penguin lesson is about to begin. Following on from our polar bear discussion, today’s blog will focus on flying…Or lack of it.

I would like to introduce you all to Jane, who is one of our security guards. I know her real title is “Penguin Patroller”, but she does the job of a security guard, making sure we are all safe and well during the day when Living Coasts lets the public in.

I was listening to some visitors chatting earlier on today, and they seemed to think that in the wild penguins get eaten by polar bears. Thankfully Jane (the Penguin patroller) was on hand to answer their questions and now they know the truth, which is that there is no way any penguin could be eaten by a polar bear, they can’t get the wrapper off. Ha ha. Sorry.

Can you tell the difference between a male and female penguin? No, neither can our keepers. To a penguin, it is pretty obvious, but I can see how people could get confused because we do look pretty similar.

There is a new keeper who comes onto our beach, and she spends lots of time watching us, and then writing things down. Apparently she is a research student who is here to work on “penguin enrichment”, which I have been told is just another word for toys.

I’ve been hearing the cracking of eggshells and high pitched squeaking that after ten minutes makes me want to hide in a bush for some peace…it must mean there are babies on the beach again.

I know it has been a while since I have written, but summer at Living Coasts is really busy, so what with having to look beautiful for the visitors and keeping the other penguins under control I have hardly had time to write!

Today has been really busy with lots of visitors and three different school groups coming to see everyone on Penguin Beach and the rest of the zoo.

Just to make sure you don't get confused I'm going to explain a bit about us penguins at Living Coasts. There are two different species here: African penguins (like me) and Macaroni penguins from Antarctica.