The Loveland Living Planet Aquarium: Penguin Encounter

For an additional fee you can see the Gentoo Penguins at the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium up close and even get to feed them. It was an absolutely amazing experience and I am super happy that we came out to do it.

About a year ago a coworker mentioned doing the Penguin Encounter at the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium and since then Landis has been, well, absolutely obsessed. So we finally took some time off from work to go see the penguins, and while we were at it, the rest of the aquarium as well. This post ran long so I split this out from the rest of our aquarium visit.

Quick Details:

Time Needed: About an hour for the encounter, plus whatever time you want to do the rest of the aquarium (we took about 2 hours).
Cost: $24.95 per person in addition to the aquarium fee ($19.95 per adult).
I highly recommend making a reservation. They only do it once a day and it is limited to 10 people so your chances of there being an opening are very small.

To Get Here:

Take I15 to exit 291, 12300 s. Go west to the first light and turn right on Lone Peak Parkway and it will be on the right very shortly.

Our reservation for the penguin encounter recommended we show up at least a half hour early to ensure we got there in time. I think that was a bit excessive, but it is good to allow the extra time just in case something happens. Plus, it did give us time to enjoy the penguins before our private showing. If a half hour is too much for you, you can go see other exhibits, just be sure to be back by 1.

Penguins!!!!!!

I love the under water views too.

But they move very quickly! So some shots are a little blurry.

In and out of water.

So cute!

Refraction.

This is Uno. You can see his nametag here on his flipper. He was the first chick born in the aquarium (hence the name). He was also a secondary egg, so the workers took this one and incubated it. So he was raised by humans, and therefore is particularly interested in us humans on the other side of the glass. He likes to come up and say hi, and also likes to chase the children back and forth.

Random useless, but nevertheless interesting facts I learned today. penguins tend to lay 2 eggs. However they focus primarily on one, and consider the other one as an emergency plan B. Uno was the secondary egg and the only one they incubated with human interference. All the other chicks hatched here were by their actual parents, or by foster penguin parents.

The penguins names and quick bios. Where you can infer some of that information, but it’s better to do the encounter and let the specialists tell you about it.

They had 11 penguins initially and have since had 9 chicks.

These guys can swim 22 miles per hour! No wonder I had trouble getting a good swimming shot.

Caught this guy shooting to the surface.

These are Gentoo Penguins by the way. The 3rd tallest species behind Emperor and King Penguins.

Diving.

Loving the part in, part out of water shots.

Ahhh!!! So cute!

Underwater poop. Gross but funny. Yes, I am 12.

It’s fun watching them navigate on land.

And swimming around.

After enjoying the exhibit for a half hour, we were eventually guided back to a small classroom. There was a short educational and safety demonstration and they provided down jackets so we wouldn’t freeze in the penguin area.

Into the little feeding room. Luckily it was not quite what I was expecting and we were not on display while we fed the penguins.

The fish we will be feeding to the penguins.

After some more safety stuff and a demonstration of how to feed them the door was opened. Our host was nice enough to say that the best time to film is now.

So here they all are running in to get their dinner. It’s so amazing!

They start crowding around your legs waiting for you to feed them. Honestly, it’s like a bunch of dogs waiting for a treat.

But they are so cute!

Feeding one of them.

Uno was late to the party. The staff know him by sound because he has longer claws that clack on the cement.

Y’all got any more of them fish?

I didn't notice them doing it at the time, but they are keeping track of which penguins are getting how many fish. That seems like a challenge. But that is one of the reasons they have the little arm band name tags.

Landis has a friend.

Nom nom nom.

Sorry bud, fresh out.

This is so awesome!

After the host gathered the bowls, they figured out the food was gone and most of them skedaddled.

Little disclaimer: I know the host had an official title but I can’t remember it. Not trying to be offensive or dismissive but I thought host was better than the wrong title.

Eventually we were left with Uno (back) and Milo (front). We still had about 20 minutes left for our encounter so they took the time to provide some fun facts and answer questions and we got to enjoy these guys.

Speaking of fun facts, this is a method penguins use to cool down. They will raise one flipper which has a lot of capillaries and the cold air will cool the blood down and that circulates through their body.

Wow, Uno does have long claws.

Close-up of Milo.

I asked them what their naming method was, like if they have some sort of convention like some shelters do. Aside from Uno, which they named, they hold contests and let the public come up with names and then allow voting. They also mentioned that sometimes this can be disappointing, and even a little frustrating.

Disappointing example: They had Coco, and wanted the chick to be named Chanel, you know, Coco Chanel, but Poppy won instead. Oh one more, every chick, someone tries to suggest Tuxedo.

Frustrating example: I mentioned they try to keep track of how much they eat. They do this by reading off the names of the penguins that ate and some names start to sound the same, or become frustrating to say over and over again. Fun little insight.

I didn’t get a whole lot of shots of Uno because eventually he wandered to the back corner to groom himself. Which is what he does according to the host.

Milo found a feather somebody lost. The host came and collected it. I thought about asking if I could have it, but didn’t. She did let us all feel it and wow that was a surprise. It felt more like a plastic comb than a feather.

Lots of pictures of Milo.

So pretty.

Milo is a curious little trouble maker. He eventually found a loose string on this guys jeans and decided to play with it. I managed to get a shot before the host shoed him away.

Another close up.

I love the way the white feathers fade into the black.

Such a cute little guy.

Back to cooling off.

Me and the lady next to me had a very near miss with what did they call it? Ah yes, the projectile defecation. We were warned of that but we missed the warning sign.

Fun fact, aside from the fact that they projectile poop, they indiscriminately poop. In the water, near their food, in their nest, wherever it happens, it happens.

Stretch!!!

Eventually our time was up and they chased Uno out of his little corner.

And there goes Milo. Bye! It was so fun to hang out with you for a minute!

After that we went back to the little classroom to return our jackets and gather our belongings. We then were free to explore the rest of the aquarium.

That was so incredible! I am so happy we did it and got to feed and interact with the penguins. I am a little disappointed that most of them took off so quickly, but we still had Milo and Uno for a bit. The staff were so friendly and knowledgeable. The group size is a perfect intimate size of 10 people. I honestly was a little worried that we were going to be the only people there without kids, but actually there was one family of 4, and 3 couples with no kids (including us). Yay, we are not the only animal loving nerds. I really enjoyed the adventure and feel it was worth the additional cost.