Get your tuxedo out – today is World Penguin Day, a special day designed to celebrate and marvel at the conservation needs, habitats and unique behaviour of these extraordinary flightless birds and, on a more serious note, to draw attention to the need to protect them.

 

So how are you celebrating World Penguin Day?!…

The resident penguins at Ski Dubai, which we reported on here when they first arrived in Dubai, are celebrating with a ‘mock migration’.  

raditionally on 25 April, Adelie penguins in the Antarctic begin their annual northward migration.  The Ski Dubai centre has created a special route for its resident penguins to emulate a migration, starting at 6pm today.  Visitors can follow the march of the penguins across their specially-designed trail and you can also have you photo taken be a giant ice wall carved with the World Penguin Day logo.

Marketing and Sales Director at Ski Dubai, Omar El Banna, said: “The Snow Penguins are a part of the Ski Dubai family and it is our endeavour to do everything we can to celebrate these magnificent creatures while simultaneously raising awareness about their natural habitat and the conservation efforts needed to sustain them for generations to come. We wanted to offer something fun and interactive that would showcase the loveable nature of these extraordinary birds, and there is no better way than with a fun march across Ski Dubai with their friends, supporters and well-wishers.”

Pew Charitable Trusts, from their base in Washington, have created a special Penguin Quiz for the day – to find out which penguin type you most resemble.  Our Content Editor tried it out and apparently she’s a chinstrap penguin – “a fiercely loyal friend and companion… not afraid to do what it takes to get the job done!”

Adelie?… Chinstrap?… Gentoo?… Rockhopper?…. Emperor?… Which one are you?!  Find out what penguin traits you have by completing the Penguin Personality Quiz.  Don’t worry – it’s quite brief!

Of course, the real reason for World Penguin Day (and this quirky quiz) is to drum up support for a far more serious question later this summer: will two dozen nations and the EU vote to create a marine sanctuary in the waters off Antarctica?

In less than three months, on 15 July, at a special meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, their vote will decide the fate of some of the planet’s most important penguin habitat.    

Here at FamilySkiNews, we’re crazy about penguins and we hope they make the right decision!

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