It sounds like a rock band right? You have The Beatles, The
Turtles, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and Alice and The Penguins. In a sense,
there is a song here. It’s a song of humans and animals communing in harmony.
The first time I witnessed Alice interact with the Penguins
at Timbavati Wildlife Park, it was abundantly evident to me that she shared a
special bond with them that I hadn’t witnessed since Danny DeVito took on thecaped crusader in Gotham. That of course was staged in Hollywood and this was
not. Plus there are no little rockets attached to the birds in Timbavati. J
When Alice walked up to the penguin encounter and said her
first hello, Mama and Papa (as she refers to them) snapped to attention and
immediately swam right for her for petting and attention. I have seen people
have relationships with birds and animals before but never with penguins and
never to this level. Once I saw that, I knew there was a story there.
Alice had cared for them as small chicks and when baby
animals get to Timbavati, she puts a lot of time into nurturing them and seeing
that they transition well into the environment. We set a camera up in the
penguin house that they retreat to in the evenings and what the camera caught
was even more incredible than what I saw when Alice walked up to the encounter.
Mama and Papa immediately jumped out of their little bed and
came to Alice for feeding and petting. She has a very soothing and calm voice;
it is quite distinct as well so I can see why they remember her so well. They
do the cutest thing where they pop in and out of their box, go over to Alice
and just go back and fourth the entire time.
One thing that most people don’t know about the Penguins at
Timbavati Wildlife Park is that they are warm weather penguins found off the
coast of South Africa. Right I had no clue that there was such a thing either.
These penguins love warm weather and basking in the sunshine. Sure there are
places in the enclosure that Mama and Papa can defer to if they would like
shade, but they quite honestly rarely seek it.
Check out the video of Alice interacting with Mama and Papa.
