Actually, the Flamingo's penguins originated a lot farther south than Texas, although not as far south as you might think. They’re African penguins, colloquially known as blackfoot or Jackass penguins, and are found on 24 islands around southern Africa, from Namibia to St. Croy island at Port Elizabeth, plus three mainland colonies in South Africa and Namibia, but nowhere else in the world. At least not in the wild. Oil spillages, over-fishing of their waters, and other interference from man, plus diseases like avian malaria, have sadly depleted their numbers this century and they are now an endangered species. So, much as we'd prefer to see them in their natural habitat*, at least bird sanctuaries and zoos will help to keep their numbers up.
Which brings us back to the Flamingo penguins and your question. Although they're native to South Africa, that's not where this colony came from, although the answer to exactly where that was remains a matter of some debate. We've read that they were originally loaned by Dallas Zoo some decades ago and were simply being repatriated, but we've been unable to confirm this by any credible source.
The other version we've heard, this one from the Flamingo, was that the older members of the group came from Honolulu Zoo and Hilton Hawaiian Village, and the rest were actually hatched at the Flamingo. They had apparently been here since 1998, but Harrah's had different plans for the penguin habitat -- either a steakhouse or Mexican restaurant, we understand -- and that's why they've been sent to Dallas.
During their sojourn at the Flamingo, they provided plenty of entertainment, courtesy in particular of their narrated twice-daily feeding-time spectacle, and we assume they must have been fairly happy, since they produced some baby penguins: It made the Las Vegas Review-Journal and other news outlets when, on December 30, 2003, Norton penguin (age 10) and Sweet Pea (his four-year-old child-bride) became the happy parents of the colony's 13th member.
Although their export to Dallas could be looked upon as an exile, we understand that they're happy in their new home and have a new custom-built habitat to look forward to, which opens to the public Oct. 7. We figure that although they're warm-weather penguins, the arid conditions in Las Vegas can't have been their top choice of climate.
What we can confirm is that they all arrived safely at their destination and this came as a relief to us, having learned that some penguins had been involved in a fatal truck crash on an east Texas highway this summer. When we first read about this story, we feared the worst, but it turns out the unfortunate penguins were from the Indianapolis Zoo and were on their way to Moody Gardens in Galveston, where they'll reside while their home is being renovated. (We had no idea Texas was such a penguin hotspot.) Apparently, the refrigerated truck that was transporting them (and an octopus, some crabs, two tropical birds, and some fish) went off the road when the driver lost control after leaning down to pick up a piece of paper. One of the penguins died in the crash, while three more were run over by cars. Another 21 penguins survived, including one rockhopper penguin that was trapped under the truck for hours.
Although the beloved Flamingo penguins should be free from many of the dangers posed in the wild or on the freeway, there's still one peril that faces them on a daily basis. We understand that all the penguins in Dallas Zoo must be metal detected every day to check for ingested coins, which could prove fatal. Apparently, humans just can't resist the urge to throw money into the penguin pool, although it bears scant resemblance to a wishing well. The naturally inquisitive birds are apt to eat anything thrown their way, and hence must be scanned on a regular basis and have any offending objects removed from their digestive tracts. So, please don't feed the penguins.
