{"id":280621,"date":"2026-06-12T11:27:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T11:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/280621\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T11:27:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T11:27:10","slug":"franklin-park-zoo-debuts-endangered-african-penguins-exhibit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/280621\/","title":{"rendered":"Franklin Park Zoo Debuts Endangered African Penguins Exhibit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BOSTON\u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/wbznewsradio.iheart.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">WBZ\u00a0NewsRadio<\/a>)\u00a0\u2014 Nestled between the zebras and ostrich habitats at the African Experience, African penguins are the newest addition to Franklin Park Zoo.<\/p>\n<p>The new Penguin Coast and the expanded Serengeti Crossing officially opened with a ribbon-cutting\u00a0on Thursday\u00a0by Zoo New England CEO Stephanie Brinley. Attendees got a chance to watch the latest additions splash around in the summer heat.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My favorite penguin fact is about their eyes.\u00a0So, their corneas actually change shape when they&#8217;re swimming underwater to flatten out so they can see better underwater than they are in land,&#8221; explained Assistant Curator Amanda Barr.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wbznewsradio.iheart.com\/content\/boston-school-committee-approves-school-that-replaces-teachers-with-ai\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Read More: Boston School Committee Approves School That Replaces Teachers With A.I.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Found on the southwest coast of the African Peninsula and in South Africa and Namibia, the penguin population has plummeted by nearly 90% since the 1900s, largely due to overfishing that has depleted their food supply, Barr\u00a0said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re the only species of penguin that&#8217;s critically endangered,&#8221; she explained.<\/p>\n<p>Soon, there will be a total of 18 penguins waddling around in Jamaica Plain. In addition to the flightless feathered friends, part of the $21 million expansion includes new spaces for zebras, ostriches, and, soon to come, wildebeest.<\/p>\n<p>WBZ NewsRadio\u2019s Jay Willett (<a href=\"https:\/\/nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJayWillettWBZ&amp;data=05%7C02%7CDanCantanno%40iheartmedia.com%7C05422f5934224aa8c36908dd9c8ccad7%7C122a527e5b714eba878d9810b495b9e3%7C0%7C0%7C638838850705900556%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=P5zRQQRMPWe1b8Bl%2F0e%2B%2FOn3HIqnwe%2FGxKHLZglV14s%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">@JayWillettWBZ<\/a>) reports.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON\u00a0(WBZ\u00a0NewsRadio)\u00a0\u2014 Nestled between the zebras and ostrich habitats at the African Experience, African penguins are the newest addition&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[43],"tags":[21462,14260,141366,102,141364,96,5825,141369,6279,141368,1476,141365,141373,141370,141372,141374,141371,141375,141367,308],"class_list":["post-280621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-namibia","tag-boston","tag-breaking","tag-dan-rea","tag-namibia","tag-new-england","tag-news","tag-news-radio","tag-news-talk-radio","tag-talk","tag-talk-radio","tag-traffic","tag-wbz","tag-wbz-1030-am-listen-online","tag-wbz-internet-radio","tag-wbz-news","tag-wbz-news-radio","tag-wbz-radio","tag-wbz-talk-radio","tag-wbz-am","tag-weather"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116736900924321973","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}