Wellington the penguin lights up the web as animal ambassador
On the first weekend after Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium was forced to close by the new coronavirus that was endangering the country, the penguin handlers had an idea.
Taking advantage of the building’s quiet halls, the empty spaces where normally tourists would congregate in front of fish displays, they brought the rockhopper penguin Wellington to the Amazon Rising exhibit, full of South American aquatic life.
Wellington looked up. He looked left, then right, and then back at handler Michelle Natasowski, who was recording the scene on her phone. Then he walked over to one of the big tanks in front of him and seemed especially taken by the red-bellied piranhas and blackbarred silver dollars passing by.
In those 27 seconds, a star was born.
That short, simple Wellington video has been the greatest viral sensation Shedd has had. Twitter users have watched the video more than 3.7 million times.
In that and the subsequent series known as “Penguin Field Trips,” he and his fellow Shedd rockhopper and Magellanic penguins kept homebound hu
mans entertained through thepandemic merely by displaying their natural curiosity in settings ranging from Shedd exhibits to other museums to Chicago’s Soldier Field.
“Can we please get more of this?” said one of the first comments in response to that initial Penguin Field Trip video. “Please I need a longer version,” said another.
During a year when it will have been closed almost as many days as it’s been open, the aquarium has seen its social media engagement skyrocket. Twitter and Instagram followers more than doubled, to 156,000 and 296,000, respectively.
Facebook audience grew 30%, and the Penguin Field Trip phenomenon has been global: The aquarium has heard from fans on all seven continents, it says, even Antarctica.
Another side effect of the Wellington-as-influencer phenomenon: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease specialist, was wearing a Shedd penguin face mask as he took his fall flu shot to model the wisdom of the behavior. And a Shedd plush rockhopper – also gifted to Fauci after Shedd CEO Bridget Coughlin interviewed him for an Economic Club of Chicago speaking engagement – has been spotted on one of his office shelves during interviews.
It was Friday the 13th when Shedd closed for what people initially thought was going to be 14 days, recalls Andrea Rodgers, the institution’s vice president for public relations and external affairs.
With an hour left in the last in-building workday, 30 people were in a room trying to figure out “how are we going to keep everyone engaged digitally with our mission over the next two weeks,” she recalls. “We wanted people to see that the animals were being cared for even though the public’s not there.
Shedd put the video out on Twitter with the heading “Penguins in the Amazon?! (Penguin emoji, palm tree emoji) Some of the penguins went on a field trip to meet other animals at Shedd. Wellington seemed most interested in the fishes in Amazon Rising!”
“The digital desk at Time picked it up, and once they shared it, that was it,” Rodgers recalls.
What staff emphasize is that this was not so extraordinary. Penguins typically get taken out of their habitats for what’s known in the zoo trade as “enrichment” – essentially, variety in the routine that keeps them active and thriving. Usually, that happens outside of open hours or in the back hallways and the office spaces at the Shedd because the aquarium is filled with almost 2 million annual visitors.
“Giving them physical exercise, walking, is good for them, and also mental stimulation,” says Lana Gonzalez, manager of penguins and sea otters. “So we change it up for them, which could be a toy or a waterfall or ice. But also different visual stimulation, seeing what they are interested in, is very engaging as well.”
Wellington and his peers have succeeded in not only keeping people entertained but in getting out the aquarium’s message about wildlife conservation and care, says Steve Aibel, senior director of animal behavior and training.
Meanwhile, Shedd in December threw a 33d birthday party for Wellington, the oldest of the aquarium’s penguins. That event took place, fittingly, on Facebook LIve.
GIVING THEM PHYSICAL EXERCISE, WALKING, IS GOOD FOR THEM, AND ALSO MENTAL STIMULATION. Lana Gonzalez, Shedd Aquarium worker