P-p-pick up a pension! World’s oldest penguin, 35
A PENGUIN thought to be the oldest of her kind in the world has celebrated her 35th birthday.
The Northern rockhopper, named Mrs Wolowitz, hatched at Edinburgh Zoo in 1987 and has lived to double her life expectancy.
She was presented with a birthday treat of her favourite sprats and whitebait by keepers at the zoo’s famous penguin colony.
Rockhoppers – among the smallest penguins and known for their bright yellow head plumage and red eyes – usually live for around ten years in the wild and around twice that age in captivity.
Senior animal keeper Dawn Nicoll said: ‘Mrs Wolowitz hatched at Edinburgh Zoo so she’s always been with us and in fact she’s older than most of her keepers. She only had one chick, a wee male we called Mr Green, but she outlived him and she’s still going strong.
‘We all have a soft spot for Mrs Wolowitz. She always gives us a honk when we arrive in the morning and then when we shout ‘goodnight’ at the end of the day.
‘She also has a bit of a fan club among our visitors, who look out for her in her favourite sunny spot.
‘But she can be quite feisty. She’ll stand her ground with the juvenile penguins and isn’t afraid to tell them off if they are in her space. She is also known to barge to the front of the queue at feeding time.’
Mrs Wolowitz hatched on May 13 1987 and produced her only offspring, Mr Green, in 1991, when she was four years old. The pair were inseparable and Mrs Wolowitz was named at that time after a mother character in TV sitcom The Big Bang Theory.
Mr Green reached the age of 25 before he died in 2016.
Ms Nicoll said some of Mrs Wolowitz’s feathers were now greying and she has cataracts but is otherwise defying her old age.
She suggested the penguin’s longevity may be down in part to having had only one chick. ‘Having chicks year after year can be quite stressful,’ she said.