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Eighteen endangered Humboldt Penguins have a new home at the Rosamond
Gifford Zoo. The $3.7 million Penguin Coast Exhibit is the
crowning achievement in a seven-year capital campaign and the zoo’s
most ambitious project in twenty years. The main features
of the exhibit are a 50,000 gallon penguin pool and six different
viewing areas that allow visitors to view the penguins swimming
underwater at speeds up to 20 miles per hour, to see the penguins
on the rocky beach and in their indoor holding area when the weather
gets too chilly or the penguins are molting.
Syska Hennessy Group completed the design of the aquatic life support
systems for the new outdoor 50,000 gallon penguin exhibit for this
zoo expansion. The scope of design included the water filtration
systems for the exhibit including sand filtration, ozone disinfection
and biofiltration, as well as infrastructure design.
Humboldt Penguins, which are named after the Humboldt Current that
flows along the west coast of the Americas, inhabit hot, dry coastlines
and their ideal air temperature ranges from 32 degrees to 70 degrees
while their ideal water temperature is 25 degrees to 75 degrees. One
significant design challenge was to maintain the required water
temperatures for the penguins in the unpredictable climate of upstate
New York. Our engineers designed an on-site plant that will
maintain a maximum water temperature of 55o Fahrenheit for the penguins
in the summertime, and keep the outdoor exhibit from freezing in
the winter months.
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