Like the famed white bear which roams the Arctic ice, the resolutely Antarctic penguin is deemed a “polar” animal. The word polar, when you think about it, is a suggestive word: it suggests great and opposite extremes. True to the word, the penguin is a warm-blooded creature that lives in the coldest of climates. The bird is black and, at once, white. Within this language of opposites, would it be fair to say the penguin is also night and day?

After almost 14 years at SeaWorld San Diego, I just learned something new: penguins don’t know how to swim instinctively. In the wild, chicks are left alone to learn, which means waiting for the first one to take a plunge or fall in. But here at SeaWorld the keepers actually give annual swim lessons to the chicks born during the November and December hatching season. In February, about a dozen Adelie, gentoo and macaroni juveniles were secluded inside the Penguin Encounter while their adult plumage grew in.

When SeaWorld’s penguins fly … they fly on Southwest Airlines. Check out Pete and Penny Penguin strutting down the aisle on their recent flight from San Diego to Denver!!!

Macaroni, gentoo and Adelie penguins were in for a treat yesterday as SeaWorld San Diego bird keepers distributed 14 tons of river rocks throughout the Penguin Encounter.

Earlier this week actress Dania Ramirez, star of HBO’s hit series Entourage, visited SeaWorld Orlando's Penguin Encounter. She ditch

***UPDATED 2/11/2011***

It’s Caption Contest Time! We have so many great photos of our trainers, animal care teams, aviculturists and aquarists with our animals, we thought it would be fun to let our Fans get in on the act of trying to create some humorous captions. This is a photo of one of our ace aviculturists acclimating three macaroni penguin chicks to the Penguin Encounter at SeaWorld San Diego. While doing so, it seems one of our emperor penguins wants to give her a little help and advice.

As you’re pulling out your warm coats, hats and gloves for the cold weather, you’ll be amazed at how some animals found at SeaWorld keep warm during extreme cold weather conditions.

It may be small, fluffy and wobbly, but SeaWorld San Diego has new emperor at the park and it’s ready to rule.

Last week was “Rock Week” at SeaWorld San Diego and the aviculturists at the park’s Penguin Encounter celebrated. What may quite sound silly at first, “Rock Week” is actually one of the most important times of the year.