The Loveland Living Planet Aquarium

 The Loveland Living Planet Aquarium is a large, ever growing aquarium located in Draper Utah. Aside from your standard aquarium fair, it features some other select wildlife including our favorites, otters and penguins. What brought us out today, aside from some gross weather, was the new macaroni penguins that were just introduced in April. We love the penguins so of course we decided the next gross day this was absolutely what we were going to do! This is one of our go to places when the weather is gross. So, we do it fairly often.

Quick Details:

Length: It is roughly a mile to explore all of the exhibits, spread out on 2 floors.
Trail Type: Indoor walk that is ADA compliant.
Difficulty:| Indoor, DR2.
Elevation Gain: NA
Restroom: Yes, several.
Dogs? No.
Other Info: Fee area.

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.

The Trail:

They are sure making the new building quite artistic.

The Claw, which I suppose is now Rio Tinto Kennecott Plaza.

The main lobby. 

Since we wanted to see the new penguins, it was of the the Penguin Research Station.

Penguins from below.

The penguin names.

Which has already been updated with the new macaroni penguins: Penne, Ziti, Linguini, and Rigatoni. All born in November 2019.

Ahhh!!! They are so cute! All 4 of them are hanging out right next to the window. I learned later that they are super curious about their new surroundings, which totally makes sense.

Aside from the cute orange streaks, their beaks appear to be a little bigger. Plus their beaks and feet are pink.

This guy is super curious!

At this point I could not figure out their arm bands.

Underwater.

Again.

So cute!

The Gentoo penguins are all hanging out on land right now.

Macaroni.

The Gentoo’s again.

I noticed that while they are obviously not being hostile towards each other, they don’t seem to want to be together. A little later I was able to ask about that.

I love them all!

According to this chart Macaroni penguins are the 8th biggest, and the 3rd largest of the crested penguins (the guys that have the yellow feathers on top). And as we already knew, Gentoo’s are the 3rd largest overall.

Into Expedition Asia.

The vine snake was easier to spot today than normal.

Komodo dragon.

The clouded snow leopard. Sadly the other one died not too long ago.

Mountain tortoise.

Onto the Journey to South America. 

Little frogs.

Bigger frogs.

Newt?

The sloth is yet again, snoozing in a log. It's what sloths do, so I’m used to not seeing it very well. We did have the pleasure of seeing him active once though.

This turtle is cruising!

River giants.

Boa constrictor.

Turtles. we haven't seen the caiman in a little bit. I hope its okay.

Piranha.

Electric eel.

Neat faux waterfall.

On to Discover Utah.

Faux mine.

Desert tortoise.

Tiger salamander.

It’s not often we see this display without people.

The megalodon jaw. I feel like all major aquariums we have been to has one of these.

On to the Ocean Explorer habitat.

.Tide pools.

Good shot of sea stars, anemone, and an urchin.

The host was saying that for some reason most of the animals were on this side. I noticed that on the other side there was a fountain spraying water pretty strongly. I asked if maybe that was why? But.. I don’t think she heard me quite clearly, so she explained that they do try to simulate the oceans ebb and flow in tide pools here. I wish I had taken a picture of it.

I love my local aquarium, I really do, but I feel like the Seattle Aquarium did a much better job of simulating that.

The host also pointed out an oddity. A sea star with 6 arms versus the standard 5.

Some sea horses… snuggling. Yes… snuggling.

More sea horses.

The giant octopus hanging out on the glass. Hello cutey!

Rays.

Sexy dancer shrimp. Yes, that is really what they are called. They were not sexy dancing at the moment.

Upside down jellies.

The shark tunnel. I don’t know what it was about today, maybe just some bad apples, but oh my hell, it was super loud and it was just not working for me today… so I scooted through faster than I usually do.

The shark habitat. With some sharks.

I think this is the southern stingray. Its huge compared to the ones in the tide pool areas.

More sharks.

Sea turtle.

Shark teeth.

So now we have done the whole circuit. So, as we tend to do we decided to hit up our favorites.

Yay! One of the North American River Otters is out! 

This is why we like to revisit our favorite areas. The otters were not out on our first loop through here.

Looks like she has a snack.

I love when they have snacks. They are just so happy about it.

I learned they got a new North American Otter from Seattle in May 8th. I'm not sure if this is her, or the last of the original 4, Oscar. They are currently being introduced to each other in back of house, and trading time in the habitat.

Hello cutey!

Swimming.

Swimming away. Okay, bye!

Now we’re in the inside area.

Climbing up to land.

Exploring.

She found a treat box.

Nom nom nom.

I freaking love them. I want one!

Ohm nom nom nom.

Then she had a better idea.

Just toss it into the creek and the treats will float up. Clever girl.

OOOOHM nom nom nom.

So dang cute.

Jellies!

Back to our penguin friends. The macaroni's are still hanging out by the glass.

The macaroni’s again.

The Gentoo's.

I love how there almost always seems to be one up on top of the coves that can’t seem to get down. We overheard the host explaining that they know how to get down, they just forget sometimes for a bit.

Just doing penguin things.

The macaroni’s again.

They are so dang cute!

I want to take one of them home too.

A kid asked the host why they don’t have names? The host explained they do have names, (and he picked up on what the kid was really asking) but they just arrived from another aquarium and that aquarium had a different armband method that has a code, rather than a name like the Gentoo's have. And since they were used to their armbands, they decided not to change them. At least not yet.

He then went on to point out who was who. If there is a guide anywhere I didn’t see it. I do know they are: Penne, Ziti, Linguini, and Rigatoni.

I said to the host, obviously they are not fighting each other, but they don’t seem to want to be around each other. Was that expected? The host informed well, kind of. The Gentoo’s are in mating season, so they are kind of concerned about other things. While the new macaroni's are still getting used to the the new environment and are super curious right now.

Of course that begged a follow-up question: wait, they don’t go into mating season at the same time? Turns out the Gentoo’s are on southern hemisphere lighting, where the aquarium the macaroni's came from was on northern hemisphere lighting. So, they are a little confused right now. However he said they expect them to adapt by next year.

I was so infatuated with the new macaroni’s I wasn’t paying much attention to the Gentoo’s. I did notice they were paired up though.

And, he found a pebble!

He’s carrying it all the way to the other side. I haven’t seen them do that before!

The drop off at the nest.

The hunt for another one.

They are very picky.

Found a good one.

Now the trek back to the nest.

No matter the obstacle.

Long trek.

Almost there.

Made it!

Quick little disagreement with the lady friend.

They have quite a mound! He’s been a busy little man. This is scamper. Who happens to be the 3rd chick born here at the aquarium in June 2015.

I did not get a clear enough image of the tag of the girl he is partnered with. If the aquarium has the pairs listed anywhere I haven't found it.

Whelp, back to find more pebbles.

Another couple squabbles and a cliffed penguin.

We decided to try for the Asian otters again, and they were still not out. Dang.

We did see a little sea turtle I haven’t seen before.

The lobby.

The Claw.

Again.

Moody clouds.

The front.

Well, we came today mostly to see the new macaroni penguins, and well, we saw them. Plus the rest of the aquarium is great too. It was a little busy, as usual, but not too bad.

As for difficulty, it is ADA compliant with ramps and elevators, all stairways can be bypassed. In fact, the main initial loop we did today is all ramps.

Dog are not allowed.