Happy Birthday, Aunty! How Singapore Zoo's Oldest Penguin Made It to 40

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Happy 40th birthday Auntie. Our African [music] penguin Auntie Ann is a living legend right here at the Singapore Zoo.

[00:00:07]She is turning 40 years old, which is a huge milestone for us as well as her caretakers [music] right here in Mandai because most African penguins live only up to 30 years old. So wondering how she's able to live such a long and healthy life? [music] Please continue watching the video.

[00:00:30]>> [music] >> We ensure that Auntie has everything that she needs and being well taken care of. She takes her supplements. She has fresh food every day. Due to her age, Auntie has arthritis and because of that we make sure that she doesn't put too much strain on her legs. For example, when we get her to do her daily sunning, we will sometimes carry her outside like a little princess while the other penguins can just walk outside on their own. Auntie has a very independent personality. She tends to do things at her own pace, own time, own target.

[00:01:00]Where other penguins are swimming in the pool, she usually just waits at the corner at the edge of the pool. Once the younger penguins are all out of the pool, then she'll finally go inside the water itself. Even when it comes to moving to other places, usually she tends to prefer to be by herself and chooses to socialize only when she feels like it.

[00:01:21]Auntie has a very refined taste for fish. We have to make sure every day that the fish we're feeding her is not too firm, not too soft, not too cold, and not too warm. It also has to be really straight and cannot have even just a slight bend as well.

[00:01:38]Other than our daily visual checks, we also conduct a quality of life assessments or QLAs every so often just to make sure that Auntie has all that she needs taken care of. So today we have Dr. Cheng with us who's going to do Auntie's QLA. Hi Dr. Cheng. Hey Hakim.

[00:01:54]Thanks for bringing me [music] down.

[00:01:55]>> Pleasure to have you here. We're going to find out in a fairly objective manner how Auntie's overall well-being has been in her senior years. We like to make sure that we can assess lots of things that impact her day-to-day life. We probably want to quickly do a quick assessment of her body condition. We're going to be looking at her appearance and the shape of her body, but we'll also have a quick feel of her over her spine, over her shoulder area, and the keel, the sternal keel that these birds have.

[00:02:25]Hey, mama.

[00:02:26]I know. I know. I know.

[00:02:29]Definitely a lot of good condition on her keel.

[00:02:32]And over her spine as well, really, really nicely muscled. For an older bird, she's pretty good. I'd actually happily put her as a five out of nine, which is right [music] in the middle of the condition score that we have we want her to be. She looks great. She still swims around pretty well? Yes, actively swimming a lot. She's going to the outdoor pools. She can do her mini mini hops as well.

[00:02:53]>> she'll go for it pretty soon. Mini mini stumbles, maybe.

[00:02:58]Then looking at her demeanor and her cognition, how aware she is of everything that's going on around her.

[00:03:03]She's a three. She's very bright, alert.

[00:03:06]She's mostly aware of everything that's happening. Well, it looks like she's paying attention to us even being in this room with her. Now, for her feather coverage, she has full plumage, partial patchy plumage. I think she looks like she's got fairly full plumage, actually.

[00:03:18]I think she's pretty good. So, she gets a three for that. Her plumage quality, does she have nice, dense, thick, shiny plumage that's the ideal coloration? She does. She has fairly good feathering. We can put it as a three for now. Her pain intensity, so we're looking at her level of comfort. Is she free of pain when performing normal [music] behaviors or activities? Maybe not a three for this one, cuz we know that there's going to be some degree of discomfort, at least.

[00:03:43]So, we'll probably give her a two for that one.

[00:03:45]Now, this question looks at her prognosis. This is looking at long-term what will happen with the course of her condition. Is the pain likely to be experienced for most of the bird's life?

[00:03:56]Yeah, and I think that the discomfort will be there for much of her life. So, unfortunately, she scores a one for that. This is an important one. Is there no disease or a disease that is not going to require long-term medication?

[00:04:07]She actually gets about fine without any medical [music] management. Yeah. So, it'll be a three. She gets a three.

[00:04:13]For her pelvic limb function, for the most part, she can do everything. Like her hopping, she can't be able to hop high as the others, but she can still hop a bit. So, we'll leave that as a two for now, then. I think her wings or pectoral and functions are actually quite good, which is great.

[00:04:27]>> [music] >> She's giving us a little whack before.

[00:04:30]We're looking at her grooming, her bathing, and other physical behaviors of like self-cleaning. Does she perform them easily without much difficulty and with a normal frequency? A bit difficult to sometimes groom herself at certain locations. She will groom herself every day, go into the water and everything.

[00:04:46]And I mean, her plumage looks quite clean and clear [music] as well, which is great. Okay. So, we'll give her a three for that. That's excellent. So, the highest score for that [music] is her food intake really good. She consumes more than 90% of the food offered within a very short space of time. Her appetite has been very good.

[00:05:00]Every feeding session, she tend to eat like about four scoops. Okay. Would you say her social interaction is pretty normal and her social status is maintained? The only friend she has is Bella. Okay. So, maybe for this one, she's getting a score of one out of three, and I think that's fine. She at least has one companion. [music] She She just when she wants to be with the group as well. So, sometimes like when all of them are swimming, she'll just be like within the group.

[00:05:25]We're looking at whether she can live comfortably in her usual enclosure. You guys don't have to do too much different for Auntie. She just uses the space as any other penguin. When it comes to physical contact, I don't think she loves it, but she's just tolerant.

[00:05:39]So, she's probably closer to a two.

[00:05:41]She's certainly not flighty or easily scared. I think that wraps up all of our questions.

[00:05:48]Total 32 out of 42 Good. Honestly, that's pretty good for a bird of her age. Really positive findings are that she's coping just fine in the environment she's been in for the last little while. We don't need to make too many major changes to make sure she's comfortable. She really looks after herself, which is excellent and really positive. One thing we find with a number of older penguins is they stop grooming very well. They may not be able to clean the material off from their face or from their beaks or feet.

[00:06:20]Auntie's doing all of that just fine, which is excellent. She's able to get around really well, all the slopes, navigate the speed bumps and things that she has in her environment, which is really good for a penguin that has significant changes to her hips and to her spine. I think we'll be able to rest easy until the next 3 months. Happy birthday, Auntie. Nice to spend some time with you.

[00:06:43]>> [music]