While in beautiful Southern California last year, Dorothy and Jayson visited Jennifer. Jennifer works as a penguin keeper and trainer at SeaWorld, San Diego. The San Diego SeaWorld facility is huge and and has world- class marine exhibits including polarbears, orcas, grey whales, sharks, penguins and much more.

Jennifer really likes her job!

Jen works closely with the penguins,some of which she has raised from eggs. Jennifer says" What I like about my job is easy-THE ANIMALS! I love taking care of animals and raising babies and help to create new exhibits and educating kids and adults about how wonderful animals are and why they are so important". Maintaining the penguin exhibit is just a fraction of the behind-the-scenes duties she must perform to keep the penguins healthy and happy and presentable to the public. The penguins are tagged for identification and each has it's own medical history and daily care schedule. Besides her work at the facility, Jennifer also does public appearances with her penguins on behalf of SeaWorld San Diego.

Jennifer invited us to take a tour of the peguin facility at SeaWorld. The penguin exhibit is very large, with an outdoors section consisting of pools and swimming areas where the public can view the penguins up close, and an indoors display which closely matches the penguins natural habitat. The temerature inside is kept at 32 degrees and ice and snow are blown in to cover the rocky terrain.

The penguins know Jen's voice!

It is a rare treat to be invited into the display! We were assigned snow boots and heavy jackets and followed Jennifer as she introduced us to her penguins. The birds are very funny and each has it's own personality. Some are shy while others are quite social and downright bold. While I was bent over petting one penguin, another was behind me trying to pull my wallet out of my back pocket!

We had a great time at SeaWorld and learned a lot about marine animals and habitat .

Thanks Jen!

For additional information about penguins or SeaWorld San Diego, send e-mail to:

iotech@charter.net