The Calgary Zoo said seven of its 22 Humboldt penguins were found dead around 7:15 a.m. Thursday after drowning.
The seven birds ranged in age from six months to three years old. One of the them hatched at the Calgary Zoo in June.
“When you come in the morning and find this type of event it’s really difficult,” Jamie Dorgan, Director Animal Care at the Calgary Zoo said.
According to the Calgary Zoo, the birds were being kept in their back holding area, which is regularly used to house the animals. Necropsy results showed the penguins died as a result of drowning.
An investigation is now underway to determine what caused the penguins to drown.
“It seems to be some stressor that led to these birds going into some kind of panic.”
“But it’s hard to say what would have triggered that,” Dorgan said.
The penguin plunge attraction has been under construction since Monday so the animals were being kept in the back holding area.
Dorgan said the penguins have all been in the back rooms for much longer.
“We’re quite comfortable with the set up of the building,” Dorgan said. “It’s been in operation for five years. We’ve never had any issue with these rooms before. So it’s a bit of a shocker.”
READ MORE: Otter at Calgary Zoo drowns after getting tangled in pants from zookeeper
There are no cameras in the back, which is something Zoocheck, a Canadian-based wildlife protection agency, said is unacceptable.
“There’s no excuse for a zoo, the size of Calgary Zoo with a budget as large as theirs not to be able to properly monitor these animals,” Julie Woodyer, Campaigns Director at Zoocheck Canada, said.
Penguin researcher ‘baffled’ by drowning
Humboldt penguins live off the coasts of Chile and Peru and, although they don’t migrate as much as other penguins, they’re still built for water.
Ginger Rebstock, a penguin researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle, said they can swim for hundreds of kilometres and sleep on choppy water.
“I really can’t imagine a penguin drowning without something being wrong with the penguin or the water it’s in,” Rebstock said.
They still need to breathe every few minutes and could drown if trapped by something such as a fishing net, she added. They might also panic if a predator is nearby.
Rebstock is at a loss to explain what may have happened to the penguins that drowned in what should have been a safe zoo environment.
“I’m totally baffled by it as well.”
Naturalist Brian Keating, a former employee at the Calgary Zoo, called the deaths sad and weird. He hopes staff figure out what went wrong so it doesn’t happen again.
The Calgary Zoo has made headlines in the past over deaths of its animals. Most recently, an otter drowned after becoming entangled in a pair of pants.
“We’ve seen several unusual deaths there,” Woodyer said.
READ MORE: LIST – Animal deaths at the Calgary Zoo
The penguin plunge was suppose to be closed until next Friday for construction. There’s no word on whether that date will be extended.
Three other species, totaling about 50 penguins, also live in the penguin plunge area of the zoo.
WATCH ABOVE: The Calgary Zoo says they are deeply saddened after the death of seven Humboldt penguins. As Global’s Kim Smith reports, it appears the penguins died as a result of drowning.
With files from The Canadian Press