Polite, Pigeon-Toed, and Perfect: A Deep Dive into our Puffins

In this episode, Amanda Torres joins Madeline and Erin to pull back the curtain on what it actually takes to care for one of the Aquarium's most specialized and climate-controlled exhibits, the Diving Birds habitat, introduces us to the full cast of clownish characters, and answers the question everyone has been asking: are they penguins? (Spoiler alert, no!)

In this episode:

• Amanda's path at the Aquarium from education intern to mammologist and diving bird caretaker
• What alcids are, what makes them remarkable, and how the Aquarium's flock is structured across tufted puffins, horned puffins, and pigeon guillemots
• The engineering behind the exhibit: Alaska-based daylight simulation, reverse air pressure, and water temperatures cold enough to require an 8mm wetsuit
• How behavioral training has transformed the way staff monitor and care for individual birds, including weekly weigh-ins and voluntary medication delivery
• The Alcid Rodeo: the annual drain-down, full flock physicals, and what 14 to 16 hours of coordinated bird wrangling actually looks like
• Individual puffin personalities, including Elmer (enthusiastic, 27-plus years old, does not slow down), Brownie (polite), Pumpkin (excited but discerning), and the Nia and Monty situation
• Relationship dynamics across the flock, including Heff, Daisy, and the pigeon guillemot drama
• Puffin conservation status and the threats of climate change, ocean plastic, and introduced predators

Episode resources:

• Episode transcript
• Learn more about alcids in our Online Learning Center
  • Tufted puffins
  • Horned puffins
  • Pigeon guillemot

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hi, I'm Erin Lundy. And I'm Madeline Walden, and this is Aquarium of the Pod Civic, a podcast brought to you by Aquarium of the Pacific, Southern California's largest aquarium.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Join us as we learn alongside the experts in animal care, conservation, and more.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Welcome back to Aquarium of the Pod Civic. My name is Madeline Walden. I'm the Aquarium of the Pacific's Digital Content and Community Manager. And today, as always, I'm joined with my wonderful co-host, Erin Lundy.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

I'm the manager of conservation initiatives here at the Aquarium the Pacific, and I work on our bird, mammal, and amphibian team with some of our animals.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

And today I think you have to change your name to Aaron Puffin Island because that's my name.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

You're right, actually. Why'd you introduce me as anything else? We found out that there is an island in the UK. I hope that that is correct, but that is what I read on Wikipedia earlier. And apparently that island is named Lundy Island, which is Lund for Puffin and E for Island. Therefore, I am named Erin Puffin Island. And I could not be more pleased.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

I walked past your desk to come get you for the episode, and you just turn around in your chair and you go, I just learned the most incredible news. Oh no, I think you said I have great news.

unknown 1:20

What?

SPEAKER_02 1:20

You're also leaving out the part where I immediately minimized my screen and panicked for no reason.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

It is jarring to have someone just walk up behind you. I panicked. I have great news. I have great news. I just found out that my name means Puffin Island. When you when I walked up, you were on your computer and you were on the conservation section. I was like, oh, are they like newly coming back from I'm only reading about myself? I just care that they are named Lundie Island.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

So those puffins apparently aren't the kind we even have here. So what are we doing? I know. So what are we doing? But anyways, it was very it was a fun fact. It was a fun fact, and I am pleased. And I had thought my whole life that my last name was Monday from French, Lundy. But I actually think that it's more likely that it is from this puffin island, which is cooler and preferable to me. I love that. Because no one likes Mondays, but everyone likes puffins.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Who doesn't? I want to go there. I'm a big fan. It says it's going to take 16 hours and 40 minutes to get the floor. If we walk, if we fly. Oh.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

So you want to get the plane or well, it's named after me, so I think they should they should just pay for it. Anyway, so we are going to learn about puffins today. The ones on Lundy Island are Atlantic puffins, which are the one species we do not have, but we do have tufted puffins and horned puffins here, and their scientific name is Fratercula for the genus, which means little brother, which is also the best fact I know about puffins. You're getting so many fun facts this episode. Yeah. I am having a lot of fun with these puffs.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Literally fun facts.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

I mean so much fun. I am enjoying it. So we're going to learn a little bit about how we take care of our puffins here at the Equalmer of the Pacific, our two Pacific type puffins. And Amanda's gonna tell us about what their care is like, a little bit about their social structure and their natural history, and we're gonna learn also briefly about some other rowdy birds that live in the exhibit. It's a cool episode. Amanda's done a great job, and she's been working with these birds for years now, so she is very connected to them.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

And I'm excited to talk about puffins. And if you visit the aquarium and you walk past our diving bird habitat, you could actually hear Amanda's voice speaking on the studio above the exhibit. So and that exhibit, I don't know if we mentioned in the episode, it's in our northern Pacific Gallery. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

It's around the corner from the sea otter exhibit, and it's near where the giant Pacific octopus is. You honestly can't miss it.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

You cannot but unless those curtains are closed because it's their bedtime. Because sometimes we do that if it's if it's a late night. That is also true.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

So you may miss it. You can in fact miss it when the curtains are closed. The puffins are very sensitive to light variation, and so if we are having an early closed day or a later close day, or it's winter time, we actually will close the curtains on their exhibit so that they can sleep.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

That's right. We're about to get into the episode, but if you are enjoying Aquarium of the PodC, we would greatly appreciate your five-star review on whatever platform that you're listening on. And also, you can email us at podcific at lbaop.org. That is P-O-D-C-I-F-I-C at L B A O P dot org. Get in contact with us. Tell us what you liked about this episode, tell us what you like about other episodes, suggest future episode topics, and we just like hearing from you. So get in contact with us. We will read your email.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

It's not like an inbox where we have so many emails. We have like 10 emails, and I go to Madeline's office and I'm like, let's read. We will read them and then we will continue to read them. Yeah. Even if we had 10,000 emails a day, we would read them. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

I wish we had 10,000 PodCivic emails a day. We have like one every week. Month. Please email us. Please email us. We love emails. We just want to talk to you. We want to hear from you. So let us know what you're liking. Let us know what you want to hear in future episodes. And you can follow us at PodCivic on Instagram. You can also follow the general aquarium accounts at Aquarium Pacific everywhere. And let's get into today's episode. Welcome back. My name is Madeline Walden. I am the Aquarium Sigital Content and Community Manager. And today I'm joined with Aaron Lundie.

unknown 5:10

Hello.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

How do you get your job?

SPEAKER_02 5:12

Well, first and foremost, Lundy is the name of an island on which there are puffins, and that is very thematically appropriate today. And also I just learned that. But my name is Aaron Lundy and Erin Puffin Island. Yes, Aaron Puffin Island, Lundy, which is redundant because that means the same thing. And I forgot what my title is. And I'm the manager of conservation initiatives here at the Aquarium of the Pacific. Today we are talking to someone who takes care of puffins, Amanda Torres, who is one of our, strangely enough, mammologists, but also very involved with our puffins and our diving bird exhibit.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Which are not mammals. Not mammals. Birds are not mammals. What's that about? A lot of people are warm-blooded, just like mammals. So I like to think they're similar. But they're birds.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

They don't have mammary glands. They don't. Which is well done. They allow them to be a mammal. Yeah, exactly. You've been in a number of roles here at the aquarium and you've taken care of a variety of animals. Can we talk about your history at the aquarium a little bit? When did you start?

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Oh yeah. I started back in 2014. Wow, really? Yeah, so it's been it's been some time. I started off in our education department, so I learned how to do all the tours and I did all the shows on the microphone and I knew this about you.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

That's amazing. It makes sense. You're great on camera. Oh wow, thanks.

SPEAKER_02 6:31

And on podcasts. When I was an intern and a volunteer in 2015 and 2016, Amanda was a regular Thursday volunteer, right? I think it was a Tuesday volunteer, but yes. I remember there was also Volunteer Heather, and Heather and Amanda came as a package deal. And I learned a lot from them. So it was cool that crossover between departments and that Amanda, who worked so much in our education department, and then every other day that wasn't uh you know her mammal day, I would see her do the shows around the aquarium. Then she would teach me how to do everything mammals. So everything I know I learned from you.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

I was here a lot. I did do an internship just like you in the with the mammals, and then continued as a volunteer and I eventually got a seasonal position, not specifically with our mammals, but with our lorikeets. So then I kind of became a little more of a bird person then and then worked with our animal ambassadors and then kind of switched over to our our mammal side as a full-time mammologist.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

And was that always your plan, or did you start in the education department thinking you wanted to go that direction, or were you always interested in animal care?

SPEAKER_01 7:37

I think I was always interested in animal care. I just didn't know how to get in. It's kind of a a niche thing. So doing all the volunteering and interning kind of help get there.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

I think you've done sort of the broadest variety of bird and mammal.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Right. I've worked with our large, our parrots, our penguins, our houses, our reptiles. Just everything but the frogs, shockingly.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

Wow. I'm actually pretty offended. The only thing. That's true. Yeah, exactly. As a mammologist, someday you will work with frogs.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

I'm pretty sure that's how that works. It's all encompassing. Mammologists can mean anything here, I guess. That's true. You can work with any animal, especially any non-mal. I kind of love that about it here. Yeah. I do too.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

It's definitely cool.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Yeah, no, I think when you and I started working together closer, you were working with birds. So in my mind, you were always aviculture Samanda. And when we would share things you would put, or pictures you would send to me, or videos you would send to me, I'd be like Aviculture Samanda. And it was very nice to type because I love alliteration. But then you transitioned over into mammalogy and the that could be. Mamology mamanda. Sleeve the A off and we're good. Perfect. I'm gonna do that. Mammal mammal A Amanda. With a little apostrophe. Exactly. Mammal Manda. Perfect. I'm gonna do that now. Anyway, so you take, like we said, we you take care of a variety of animals here at the aquarium. But something that I know you have a lot of love for is our puffins and our diving bird habitat, so that's why we invited you on today. But tell us a little bit about that habitat. What are diving birds? Why does the aquarium highlight this type of specific bird?

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Diving birds are not penguins. I just want to put that out there right away. They're not penguins, they're not ducks, they're not seagulls. Penguins can dive, but they can't fly. And Alcids, diving birds, can do both. They can swim, they can fly.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Penguins could never. It's superior to penguins. Sounds like it, to be honest. What makes them different from penguins? Like anatomically, how what are some of the differences?

SPEAKER_01 9:34

So they don't have kind of those big paddles that penguins have for their wings. They actually have more like actual wing-looking wings.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

They got some feathers on their own.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

They're definitely a little bit smaller than the penguins. They're not quite as dense. So like penguins are gonna be a little denser, so it helps them to dive a little deeper. The alcids, they can dive pretty deep still, though. I think it's over a hundred feet that the puffins can dive.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

They can hold their breath for a really long time, then, huh?

SPEAKER_01 10:02

It must be. That's actually really fast.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

I think they're actually pretty fast. They do seem really fast. We have seen them swimming around.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

They're speedy birds. It's interesting. Yeah, what does Alcids encompass? What does that word mean and where does it come from? And tell me everything you know.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

It comes from so Alcids are part of a family called Alcidae, which is just a broad term for ox, and that is gonna include puffins, gillamots, and razorbills. So different types of birds in there. Wait, are puffins ox?

SPEAKER_02 10:33

Yes. That's cool. I didn't know that. Because there is a bird that is, I'm guessing, pretty closely related that are ox, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:40

And auklets and greater ox and when you're saying ox, you're not saying ox O X, right? I am actually I'm learning so much.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

They are actually related to oxygen.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

You're just flipping my whole confidence upside down.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

No, A-U-K ox is a type of bird, and apparently the family of birds that also includes puffins, so that's pretty interesting.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Yeah, the uh closest relative of the three puffins is the rhinoceros ox.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

The rhinoceros ow. Why is it called that? If you looked up a photo of him, I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Rhino, rhino birds. He has kind of like a He's got a rhino situation on his face.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

Good for him, honestly. That's so funny. So we have Alsids, and in our Alcid exhibit, we have puffins, two types, right? What kinds of puffins do we have? So we have tufted puffins and horned puffins. How could you tell the difference if you were looking at them?

SPEAKER_01 11:28

During breeding season is a little different than non-breeding season. So breeding season is during the summer, and that is when they're all kind of colorful. They're more colorful during that time. It's how they attract their mates. But the tufted puffins have, as their name suggests, little tufts. So they have kind of blonde-looking feathers that come out over their eyes and kind of an exaggerated. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

They look kind of like mad scientists to me. Yes, totally. But but those long tufts aren't present all the time. So they just grow out, and then what happens? Do they just fall out?

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Yeah, so they'll molt them out. And same thing with like the color on their beak. They'll get like more color on their beak, and then they'll kind of shed that when it's not breeding season. So the tufted puffins, they get like bright white faces, they get those tufts, and then during the non-breeding season, they look like black birds.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

They don't have any of that color. When they molt those feathers, do you find them in the water, like those those longer feathers?

SPEAKER_01 12:26

I think sometimes we find them on the mats. Most of the time when we're looking for things, we see like their the little part of the shedding from their beak. Mm-hmm. So that's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

I've seen that too. That it's like a little piece of their beak that sheds off at some frequency.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

And then the horn puffins, I forgot to mention those. The horn puffins, they get a horn over their eye, and it's actually like a fleshy projection, so part of their eyelid. It's not a feather? I thought so too. The whole time I thought it was a feather. And that's always present or that that's only present. That is just the breeding season thing, too. And then they also will shed the colorful part of their beak, and they go from that like classic black and white look to and orange, to also just like a darker look without the fleshy projection.

SPEAKER_02 13:14

The incognito mode version of the I have so many questions. First and foremost, is the horn hard or squishy? Have you touched it? I've never touched it, but I imagine it's like skin. Is it on their eyelid? Does it move with their eye if they close it, or is it above their eye?

SPEAKER_01 13:31

I think it's part of their eyelids. So it like sort of just like stages around there.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

So many questions. I wonder if they're annoyed by the eye.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

And the crazy thing is we have a puffin, her name is Pumpkin. She actually has curly horns. Like they kind of like curl.

SPEAKER_02 13:48

So those come off or recede when they are in their non-breeding plumage. They recede. What is the difference? Can you tell the difference between tufted puffins and horn puffins when they're in their non-breeding plumage?

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Yes. So they have well, first off, tufted puffins are much larger. So like there's a kind of size difference. I mean, I guess it's not super noticeable, but it's a couple hundred grams sometimes. And they are definitely like the much darker ones. Okay. So they're gonna be like pretty much all black. They literally look like someone who like took off their makeup and you're like, Where's where's your eye?

SPEAKER_02 14:27

They do look really different right now. And I think during this time of year, people go up to the puffin exhibit and they're a little bit like underwhelmed by it, just because they don't look like what they expect a puffin to look like. They're still very cute.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

They're very cute. I d I wonder, like, in the discovery of them, if they found them during the summer and they're like, oh my gosh, this beautiful bird. And then bringing them home or, you know, in under human care and be like, what did I do to you?

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Exactly. Right, all of their nicknames definitely come from like their colorfulness. Like they're called sea parrots or clowns of the sea, and like that comes from their like striking colors. They're called clowns of the sea? Yes. And then clownfish. And then a group of them, group of puffins, is a circus. So perfect.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

That's breeding plumage puffins. So that means non-breeding plumage puffins are the mimes of the sea. And we look this up in a group of mimes, it's called a troop. So I think in the winter they're called a troop of puffins, and then in the summer they're called a circus.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

I'm gonna have to use that.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

I love it. This is unofficial, but it's now science, so don't worry about it.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Every other time of year, it's just a troop.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

Yeah, just a troop. Don't worry about it. That's no big deal. Huh. That is very interesting. Do the pigeon guillemots also go through a color change?

SPEAKER_01 15:43

They do. So their color change I think is kind of funny because it's my favorite of their colors is actually their non-breeding plumage. When they're more they're like on the lighter side, they kind of have like a salt and pepper look to them. And they're mostly like white with like black speckles. Whereas during their breeding time, they're mostly black with like a white belly essentially. Yeah, so it's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

How many puffins do we have on exhibit?

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Currently we have two tufted puffins and nine horned puffins. But that could change. Oh. We'll see. Say more. I don't know if there's anything else I can say about it at the moment. That's exciting.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Very cool. Well, I know we've had some of the puffins for a considerable amount of time. Can you talk about some of our longer-lived characters that live on an exhibit?

SPEAKER_01 16:33

Yes, our puffin exhibit has been at the aquarium since the aquarium opened in 1998. So some of these animals are that old. They've been here the whole time, which is amazing. We have Naya and Monty, our two tufted puffins, and they're 28 and a half years old now. So they are pretty old. I was looking up some facts about tufted puffins before this, and one of the facts I read was that one of the longest or oldest recorded tufted puffins that they found out in the wild was like six years old at least. And I was like, haha, we have some news for them.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Hey, you guys can live a lot longer. I mean a con I mean m a lot longer under human care. That's amazing. That's a testament to the amazing care that you guys are providing them. But what is their typical lifespan under human care?

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Is that understood yet? I don't know how understood it is. We have had several tufted puffins live to be almost 30. So this is kind of amazing. And then we also have the horn puffins, and we have I think four of our nine horn puffins are over 27 years old. So they're still going. Still going. And even one of the oldest ones, Elmer, he is always running around everywhere. He is quite enthusiastic. He does not still he still has this spirit for sure. He's a spring puffin.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

Naked chicken. Not a puffin.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Not a puffin. Or maybe a summer puffin.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

Yeah, he's a clown buddy. I was wondering, so if we've had puffins since the aquarium opened, something that I find really interesting about the Diving Seabird exhibit is that there is sort of a lot of specialized infrastructure surrounding that exhibit that helps support these very special sensitive birds. And so if you go into the behind-the-scenes otter alcid area, one of the things you'll notice is when you open the door, you can't open the door because there is so much air pressure pushing in. And so can I wonder, one, how much of the infrastructure is original to the aquarium, because that's really cool to think about. But two, can you talk a little bit about how we manage these animals and sort of the ways that the exhibit is specialized to help take care of them? Because it is pretty interesting.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

It is. Yeah. Our these puffins are found in like the North Pacific. So they're found around Alaska, and we actually base our light system on a specific city that's in the kind of their northern region in Alaska. So the lights are constantly changing to, you know, adjust to the daylight times that they would have out in Alaska. So as we're having shorter days now, they're having much shorter days. The lights are coming on later and going off earlier, and then in the summertime, they stay on considerably longer. They have special lights that allow them to have like the best feather health, and that helps them out. And then we do have that reverse air pressure. I don't fully understand what it does, but I do think that it has to do with keeping the temperature super cold in there. So we want that temperature to be like 55 degrees or less because that's what is best for their health. And the water temperature is even colder than that.

SPEAKER_03 19:41

Yeah. It is cold.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Diving in there, I definitely wear like an 8mm wetsuit with a 3mm vest. And even so, I'm still pretty cold.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

What's it like diving in there? Do they interact with you at all, or are they just gonna stay out of your way?

SPEAKER_01 19:53

They tend to just kind of stay out of the way. They don't really do much interaction. A little flighty, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:59

Like do you have a lot of interaction with them?

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Not too much, but actually in recent years we've worked a lot more on hand feeding them and kind of doing more training sessions. So before we were a little bit more hands-off, we kind of let them be, but now we have more pointed feeding sessions and training sessions where we are having two people go inside the exhibit and the tufted puffins eat on one side and the horned puffins eat on the other, and they like know which side's which, and they'll hand feed, they'll eat their fish from us, which is really nice. It can help us give them medication if we ever need to. They'll even come up on a scale so we're able to weigh them like once a week, which is pretty exciting. It is cool.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Yeah, there's been so much like change to the way that they're managed. And like I feel like previously that exhibit was managed in a slightly more passive way where it was like, hey, we're monitoring the health of the flock overall. And I think it's been cool to see training being used in a way that is not disruptive to the flock and doesn't disrupt their social dynamics, but still allows us to get a weight on them. And it's just that you just come right this way and then you step on a scale, and then you get a fish. Exactly. And it's pretty cool to see that we're able to utilize training in that way. And we just talked about training in our last episode. We did. That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

It's also let us see a lot of the personalities that they have. So they're like not just like a bunch of birds, they're individual animals that like Brownie eats so calmly and like politely, and Elmer is just a wild child who will run at me, eat ten fish, and then run away. Elmer the clown. Not whatever. Sorry, our whatever is a penguin. But pumpkin is like whatever in that she, he. I think she for some reason. Pumpkin, she. Yeah. Pumpkin, she'll run up really enthusiastic to eat from us, and then every fish we offer is just like not the right fish. Turn it around, face it the other way. So what what else? Or what type of fish do you feed them? So we give them capelin, silversides, night smelt, krill, mealworms, and then sometimes we'll change it up and offer some herring or some squid. We've even done mussels. They eat all sorts of basically small fish essentially out in the ocean, and then sometimes even some marine invertebrates.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

I have to say that out of all of the things that our animals eat here at the aquarium, the thing that gives me the heebie jeebies is walking up there and seeing the plate of krill with like mealworms in it. For some reason, the combination of that is the only thing that makes me just be like, hmm, okay. I don't like I'm getting used to it, I think. I think it's because it's like icy wet krill, which is like a fishy.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

And then there's just a bunch of mealworms on top of the things they're just like kind of wriggling a little bit. But it is their favorite thing, so you have to know that judgment.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

I mean, I guess I I guess I should just have to eat with them. It's definitely the toughest things like you guys eat with favorite.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

They're called mealworms for a reason. They'll fill you up if you eat enough of them. I'm sure you could eat them. That's an employee part. Yeah. Free mealworms. Actually, we pay a lot for mealworms, so don't get it twisted. Invaluable. They are pretty valuable.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Where are they eating meal? Are they eating mealworms in the wild? Is that everyone?

SPEAKER_01 23:17

I think they'll eat more like marine worms. So a different type of worm, but it's still like the kind of an invertebrate protein. Good for them.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

They do seem to really like it as like a treat.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

There's probably some land worms that they eat.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

Yeah. Speaking of infrastructure and then the cliffside, if you've been to our diving seabird exhibit, you see sort of this like water feature towards the front, and then it's a very sheer vertical cliff face with a bunch of holes in it. And I think that that is odd to some people that they're like, do the birds use those? And they do use burrows, right? So they go into these little holes in the wall. Is that how they normally nest out in their natural habitat?

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Yeah, so they'll nest along the cliffsides. The tufted puffins will typically kind of burrow in. And the horn puffins, they can do that, or they can kind of sit on top and like make nests. But essentially they're they're doing the same thing. They're creating nests and little holes, and some birds are really good at bringing a lot of nesting materials in, and some are not so good at that. Some of them will just bring a little bit and they're minimalists. They're minimalists.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

It's funny to watch them build their nests too.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Yeah. Out in the the wild they'll take like grasses and feathers and sometimes other things that probably shouldn't be there, like plastics and but we give them their own feathers. We actually collect their feathers if they're clean enough, then we'll save them for breeding season, and then we'll offer them fake plants to use so we can kind of put them throughout the exhibit and they'll like pick through them and decide on which ones they want to decorate their nest with. Do you ever open it and you're like, what have you done with the place? Like just all the time.

SPEAKER_02 25:01

This is a mess in here. I wonder what they would do if you rearranged it. Would they get offended by it?

SPEAKER_01 25:06

Hmm, that's a good question. I don't think so. I don't think they'd notice.

SPEAKER_00 25:09

They're like, that's still my stuff. It's just in a slightly different orientation. Speaking of their burrow, so that's where they do nest. I know we have we can talk about the dynamics, but have we ever had successful breeding of any of the species here at the aquarium?

SPEAKER_01 25:23

We have, yeah. I think the tufted puffins and the porn puffins have had successful offspring here, and that's been really awesome. We haven't had any offspring in several years, not not because they can't, but really because we kind of plan out who is going to breed, and we just haven't had that in the plans recently.

SPEAKER_02 25:45

It's really cute when they are hatched because they're called a puffling.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

A puffling. And they look like a little soot sprite. They literally look like a puffling too. They're like just like a little like so cute. Who was the most recent baby? The most recent, I believe, was Pickle. Where is Pickle? Pickle was one of the tufted puffins, and I believe Pickle moved to another AZA facility. I was gonna say I was looking for pickle in here, and then I was like, where's pickle?

SPEAKER_00 26:13

Can you go through their name, all of the puffins' names?

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Yes. Our tufted puffins are Naya and Monty, and our horn puffins are Elmer, Daisy, Pumpkin, Sasha, Baron, Mo. I wish I had a brown brownie. And Hef. And Hef. Oh my god. I can't believe I almost forgot Hef.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

Hef is a funny name for a pumpkin.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

I mean, you're right. Did I say pumpkin? Also pumpkin's.

SPEAKER_02 26:44

And he's got a lot of ladies.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Hef actually does have a couple ladies. It makes sense. Hef has a normal, normal wife, and then he has the side girlfriend where he'll kind of visit Daisy sometimes who doesn't have a partner yet. Sounds like she does.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

She's stealing Hef.

SPEAKER_00 27:03

Sometimes she has one part-time part-time partner.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

And honestly, good for her. She's out in the world doing whatever she wants. She'll make her pick of the litter. I know that when we talked to Ashley at one point and we did an episode of The Young and the Nestless, and we talked a little bit about the relationship dynamics and the drama that happens in the exhibit. And so I think last time we spoke, and I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure, Daisy was trying to make a nest on a hose reel or a hose bib somewhere in the exhibit that was not an identified nest box. I remember that so specifically because I know exactly which hose bib it is, and I think it's very funny to imagine a bird building a nest on it. But I think there was a little bit of someone stepping out on someone else. I can't remember exactly who, but what's going on currently in the exhibit? Who's with who? And have they made it for life or have they decided to break up?

SPEAKER_01 27:52

Yes, Daisy is still very partial to her. No, her husband. Oh, good. She is still figuring things out. But it is not breeding season currently, so they aren't showing us the kind of drama as much. That's good. But my favorite couple is Naya and Monty. They're like the old couple. They're like my grandparents, you know. Just love to see them. And Monty just treats Naya like a queen. He is always there next to her, just like preening her. And he just kind of is just this proper gentleman. But recently, this past year, he was, I think they were having a little bit of an argument. And we didn't see him preening her as much.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

Still did it, just not as much.

unknown 28:42

Not as much.

SPEAKER_01 28:42

Well, and he was trying to take a little bit more ownership of his krill plate. He was like, I don't want to share right now.

SPEAKER_00 28:48

Rude. He's choosing himself more. He was. But I think when we talked about it with Ashley, Monty is like really good about preening her, but she gives nothing in return. Exactly. Is that still the case?

SPEAKER_01 29:03

Still, but things have come back to their normal. Okay. He prints her yet. He is still there. We see them next to each other now. Before they were like a little bit further apart, like a foot away from each other. And now they are back in love, I think. Love wins. At the end of the day.

SPEAKER_02 29:20

Well, they are twenty-eight and a half years old. So maybe they just couldn't see each other very well. It could just be that they didn't know exactly where the others were.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

I'm trying to preen you. I can't find you.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

I think most of our drama in the exhibit is actually stemming from the non-puffin animals, and it sounds like we have some pigeon gillamots that are having their own social issues in and of themselves. But this is a puffin episode. I want to hear a little bit about it. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

Okay. Well, we have a lot of pigeon gillamots. We have 11 pigeon Gillamots. Nine of them are female. Name them all right now.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

Alan in here. I just love their names. You guys are so good at naming.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

We have Sophia, Lily, Rowdy, Tarzan, Larksburg, Cruz, Ethan, Pepper, Buddy, Chippy, and Dylan. Well, you name these birds Rowdy and Tarzan. And then you expect them to behave.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

I know.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

Rowdy does sometimes pick on another bird, and that's not nice. Come on, Rowdy.

SPEAKER_02 30:17

She's just Pigeon Gillomots are a rowdy bunch, and Rowdy is the rowdiest of the bunch.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Maybe perhaps. I do love them though. They're so fun still.

SPEAKER_02 30:26

Do they ever bother the puffins or is it like very separate drama?

SPEAKER_01 30:30

I don't think that the puffins are bothered by them really. Sometimes I do say them around the puffins' nest boxes, and they'll kind of like yell into a nest box. And I'm not entirely sure. The rudest neighbors. And their yell is like a like a squeaky wheel spinning really fast.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

It does sound like that. You're right. It's like a very high-pitched continuous noise.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

I can't do it.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

It's too weird of a sound.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

It really is so high-pitched, I don't think my voice does that.

SPEAKER_02 30:57

It doesn't get a bit more. I don't think the human voice does it. Maybe Ariana Grande does that, but not me.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Maybe Mariah Carey can do the soundscape.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

I think we could get the budget.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

I think we could. Probably something. It's important for science. Mm-hmm. Exactly. STEM. It's so funny.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

So the pigeon guilemants are they're much smaller than the puffins, right? Yes. So they're not really trying to do much, right?

SPEAKER_01 31:24

No, they I mean they coexist pretty well. Like we'll see them kind of resting next to each other, but they're not like interacting as much.

SPEAKER_00 31:33

How funny. What an interesting bunch. Okay, cool. So we talked a little bit about their anatomy. We talked a little bit about their social structure. What about the general care of the Alcids? How do they how do you get them to participate in any of their general health care that we do here at the aquarium?

SPEAKER_01 31:47

So we do participate in their care. Oh yeah. So we actually hand feed them and we've trained them to go onto a scale, and that is something that helps us to tell if they're getting enough food or if they seem to be losing weight or gaining weight too rapidly. That is usually an indication that maybe something deeper is going on. With that, because they hand feed, if we do need to deliver any medication, we can put it in the fish that they eat and then trust most of the time that they'll eat it. Sometimes, mostly our pigeon gillmots, they'll like run into the water with their fish, and then all the other birds are like, Oh, you have a fish hanging out of your mouth. Let me try to grab it. But our puffins are much better about actually eating their fish right when it's handed to them, so that's a lot easier. Very cool. Do they eat their fish whole or are they doing anything? They swallow it whole. And similar to penguins, they have those kind of like spikes in their mouth that help them to hold it so that it can go in their mouth and not accidentally swim out, especially when they're in the wild chasing after live squiggly fish. And that allows them to hold a bunch of fish on their beak.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Yeah, it's cool. I want I've seen so many pictures of just puffins with lines of fish just coming out of their beak. And I always wonder, are they gonna eat them? Are they bringing them to their family? Like how many fish can they eat?

SPEAKER_01 33:05

Could be any both. They'll eat sometimes they'll even eat underwater, which I think is wild to think about. Could I do that?

unknown 33:13

No.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_02 33:15

I think if I put food in my mouth and then went underwater, I could swallow it. And that's probably the extent about it. I'm worried.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

I am worried. I let's go find out.

SPEAKER_01 33:25

They can stack a crazy number of fish in their beaks, and obviously it depends on how big the fish are. But I read somewhere that they like recorded a puffin somewhere in the wild with like over 60 fish in it.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

How did they catch 60 fish to hold all 59? Like, well, the spikes definitely help to keep them in. So that's one thing.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

It's a lot. Fascinating. Probably really small fish. But the silver type fish, but it's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 33:51

And then they hold them like every picture you see, they're holding them sideways and they're like draped out of their beak. So I'm just picturing like 60 stacked super high, and it's like when someone tries to eat a really big hamburger and they put their mouths out on the show.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

Well, if you look at them, they have like a kind of like a weird, like fleshy corner of their mouth, like where their like bottom and top beak meet, and that allows their mouth to like open at various angles so they can like actually hold all of them. It's not just like one hinge, it's like a little bit more variable there. It's like a rubber band, just cute. That is interesting. But I've tried handing our birds fish sideways to see if they would kind of like stack the fish, and I've not had any success. Like that's not how I eat. I only eat it with the head facing towards me. It's very good. And it has to sometimes be facing left or sometimes be facing right. Depends on my mood.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

And I'm not gonna tell you, but that's up to you. Exactly. That's your business to figure out.

SPEAKER_01 34:44

And that's how pumpkin is. She'll look at me and she'll be like, I really want food, I'm so excited. She'll run out to me, wings out at her side, and then no. You're holding it wrong. Not that one.

SPEAKER_02 34:54

It's at a 37-degree angle, and I was hoping for 33.

SPEAKER_01 34:57

So these are the same fish you get every day. I don't know what you want.

SPEAKER_02 35:00

They're very I feel like our penguins are just like that. Thankfully, our seals and sea lions, not at all like that. And you throw a fish at him and it's gone.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

Down the hatch.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

I've seen Parker spit out a fish before. Okay, he's a special guy.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

He's allowed to be picky. Yes. He's earned that right.

SPEAKER_00 35:15

Exactly. He's the biggest sweetest one. So speaking of their care, I know that every year we do an annual drain down. Can you talk about what that day looks like and what how it goes?

SPEAKER_01 35:24

Within our group, we call it the Alcid Rodeo. Yeah. And so that is a day where we make sure we do the annual physicals on all of our birds, but we also do any maintenance that needs to be done in the exhibit. And so what we do is we get to the aquarium bright and early, and we have divers get in with nets, and we have people topside, and we essentially net all of the birds out of the water, and we put them in their own respective kennels, and then we drain the whole exhibit, get all of the water out of it. And so at that point we start doing their annual physicals with our vet staff. And so we take one bird out at a time, sometimes two, depending on how many staff we have. And we're looking at everything on the birds. We're looking at how their wings look, how their eyes, nails, mouth, feet all look, and we're making sure that they seem nice and healthy. And if any birds need additional care, we might even do radiographs or anything on them that they need. And then all the while that's happening, we have our facilities and maintenance team inside the exhibit, and they're doing like the deepest clean you can imagine, and they're changing out all the light bulbs to make sure that the light cycle stays going how it should, and adding any things that we want added, or changing anything up that we need. It's kind of a very exciting day.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

What do you time it a certain time of year? Like is it it probably doesn't happen during their breeding season because you wouldn't want to disrupt their nesting. But what what time of year do you time it?

SPEAKER_01 36:54

We usually do it like late winter, early spring. So we try to get right after they have finished that molt back into their non-breeding plumage wait, into their breeding plumage. So their feathers have just grown in. We kind of aren't going to ruin any feathers that are coming in that way. So we're trying to be mindful of that. And then we do want to catch it before breeding season because we don't want to disrupt that process, even whether or not they have eggs that year. So that makes everybody's a tip-top shape.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

And what are you looking for in their annual exams? What are some common things that are found in these species that might be more of a concern or something you have to keep an eye on?

SPEAKER_01 37:32

Well, especially because our birds are so much older, we are definitely kind of keeping an eye on how their cataracts and eyes and things are progressing. We're also looking at their feet for any calluses or wounds. Bird feet are subject to things like bumblefoot. They are pretty fragile. And so we're just checking to make sure they don't have any lesions that could pose problems for them and their health. And then also just like wing mobility, whether or not they're we have a couple of birds that be their beaks kind of overgrow sometimes, so we have to trim those down a little. And then we do take blood samples on some of them too to see if there's anything that we can't see.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

It's a lot on Alcid Rodeo Day.

SPEAKER_00 38:15

It is a lot of fun. I've been around for an Alcid Rodeo Day, and it's a lot of work. And you're talking about what, 30 birds? How many birds are on exhibit?

SPEAKER_01 38:21

Oh, good question, I two plus nine plus eleven. Do that math.

SPEAKER_00 38:27

Twenty-two. Talking about twenty-two birds on exhibit. That's twenty-two birds that you're rounding up and and also cranking through the annual exams too between our like it's a lot. It's a lot happening.

SPEAKER_02 38:38

It's a big day. And there's so much maintenance, there's so many people in and out of that area. And because the Alsides are such a specialized and sort of sensitive group, we also do all of their exams just behind the scenes at their exhibit rather than primarily in the Mac, which is where we do most of our animal exams. So it is really interesting to see like a procedure table set up, and then these birds in their kennels and things. And we're also holding them up there to keep them cooler since they can overheat pretty easily. So it is a huge day. And I think it's usually like a 14-hour, 16-hour day.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

Most of the day comes from waiting for the exhibit to get refilled. Yeah. And then does it take a long time for the water to fill up? It takes a while, and then we have to do it a couple of times to make sure any of the cleaning solutions that we used in there. You guys rinse down water quality. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:24

Mm-hmm.

unknown 39:24

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 39:25

It's alasing. Balcid Rhode.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

It's a puffin rhode. Our aviculturist Ashley created a sticker last time and she put a little cowboy hat on a puffin.

SPEAKER_00 39:37

It is cute. So cute. We need that in the gift shop immediately. Sell it immediately. Okay, cool. Well, what about their conservation status? How are they doing in the wild?

SPEAKER_01 39:45

They are doing well. They're not of concern, but there are some areas that they do show like decline. And that typically happens because of climate change, pollution, and introduced predators. So where foxes and rats have been introduced, they'll go after the puffins when they're on their breeding grounds, plastics and stuff in the ocean. Sometimes puffins will use that in their nests, sometimes they'll use that as food, and that can create kind of a sense of feeling full, even though it's not nutrition. And so that can cause a lot of problems for these birds. And then GI problems. And then as the waters are warming, their fish sources are going elsewhere. So they're having maybe some problems finding food sometimes too.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

So it's one of those animals where by just making better choices in your life, by reducing your single-use plastics and just being a little more mindful, you are directly helping, among with many others.

SPEAKER_02 40:45

Mm-hmm. Exactly. Well said. Stop releasing rats everywhere. Specifically you. Yeah, I think it's one of those interesting things that like this animal that lives in otherwise kind of a difficult nesting area that probably not a lot of predators would be able to get to could then be so impacted by an like introduced predator, like a rat that can easily climb a cliff, easily get into a nest, we'll eat all your eggs immediately. And so like that probably has ruined a lot of species that otherwise nested and evolved to nest in these uninhabitable places, or so they thought, so that they could have this protected area. So it's a little devastating what we've done to our world. We're not going to think about it too much, because we're going to move on to questions.

SPEAKER_00 41:27

Everyone who listens to our podcast is very mindful of how they treat the planet. But are so because they're diving birds, are they interacting with any like larger marine species to that predate on them, like sea lion, seals, sharks?

SPEAKER_02 41:37

I don't think seals or sea lions would go after a puffin. They're quick. I think so. They would coexist in areas that have seals, and then if they're up in Alaska, also sea lions of different sorts. But I don't think seals or sea lions are particularly bird-focused. Ours are scared of birds. So I don't think that that would be a huge risk. If they lived in the southern hemisphere where leopard seals are, I almost wonder if that interaction would ever happen, because those guys specialize on eating penguins.

SPEAKER_00 42:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:05

They'd be like, that's just small penguins. This is ugly. Or maybe they'd be like, this is too small. This is also true.

SPEAKER_01 42:11

What is the trouble between a penguin and a puffin?

SPEAKER_02 42:13

Leopard seals don't eat.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

Puffins are only in the northern heaven. We should be asking the leopard seal that.

SPEAKER_02 42:18

That's my new favorite punchline to that joke is what's the difference between a penguin and a puffin? Leopard seals don't eat puffins. Honestly, not wrong. Yeah. It's true. They could, but they won't. Amazing.

unknown 42:30

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

Okay, we got some questions from social media that we want to go over. And we kind of talked touched on these a little bit already, but if they mate for life and it's kind of they're monogamous, right? Like it's monogamous. Seems similar to penguins. And you did what do you did? You do the sound? No, you didn't do it. No. Someone wanted to know what sound do they make? And if you could do an impression, it would be lovely to hear it.

SPEAKER_01 42:54

So they make kind of a like low throaty sound. Here's my best impression.

SPEAKER_00 43:02

Excellent. It does sound like that. It sounds like me eating a bowl of cereal. Yeah. But like way deeper. Yeah, exactly. Well, you don't hear what I am, how my voice sounds like. Okay, sorry. We only do it so much here. And why do why do why do their voices sound like that? You would think for a bird it would be a little more squawky. Do you think that caters to any sense of their who they are or how they I don't know. Yeah, why is that? Puffin existentialism. I know. Why do you sound like that? Someone wanted to know why Mo is the best.

SPEAKER_01 43:36

Why is Moe the best? I don't know. I think I would disagree. I feel like Baron is one of my favorites. If you look in our exhibit, Barron has the fanciest pants of puffins.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

I can confirm Baron. Yeah, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 43:49

His feathers on his legs are just like shaped and I don't know. Curly a little curled in such a way that like they actually look like he's wearing like what are those old time. Like pantaloons. Yeah, pantaloons.

SPEAKER_02 44:02

It looks like he's used pomade on it. You know, like he's like shaped the feathers in such a way. I can tell Baron apart from everyone. I don't know anything about the puffins other than Baron has very fancy bloomers on and one of the pigeon gillamots pepper has an orange beak. Yes. Those are the two identifies for me in the exhibit. Well it seems like everyone will be able to spot them now too. Now you know.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

I feel like everyone who takes care of these birds have like a different favorite for a different reason. They all have to be a little bit more than a lot of people. So why might Mo be the best to this person? Mo be random person who asked. I think her husband Elmer is the best because he will scarf down so many fish all at once so fast. And he will run over. And Mo, I think she is just a little bit more polite than Elmer. So maybe that's why comparatively the best. Comparatively, she's just a little bit more polite.

SPEAKER_00 44:57

I love that. What about puffins help them survive in their unique environment? What are some adaptations they've had to be able to live in those cliffsides?

SPEAKER_02 45:04

So they live in cold areas, to have a lot of cliffs, probably not a lot of like shoreline, mostly just kind of like a sheer cliff face. And I'm guessing kind of like murky, spooky water. Because that's what I picture in my head. Are they good climbers? Like are they climbing up there or is it mostly flying? Flying, I believe. I see them waddling up the cliff all the time, but I don't know if that's just because our guys just are old. Yeah. I know that their feathers are very good insulation for them, and so that probably helps them in the colder environments and things like that. Do they live in snow ever? They must, right?

SPEAKER_01 45:39

Up in Alaska, there has to be snow around. But can't picture during the cold time of year, they're gonna be at the water more often. So they aren't at land when it's not breeding season. Do they spend most of their time at the water.

SPEAKER_02 45:52

Like a fully pelagic phase of their life, or do they still come inland for resting?

SPEAKER_01 45:57

They're mostly pelagic at that time. So they're not going to be on land. They do have pretty short wings, and so I think that short wingspan helps them with swimming and diving underwater. So they're able to actually get some power behind their strokes when they're swimming underwater, but they're still able to fly with those wings.

SPEAKER_02 46:14

They got that pretty stark countershading, which is that like white on the underside, black on the backside.

SPEAKER_01 46:21

And they have the spikes inside their beak that allow them to hold on to fish, so they're 60 of them. Their foraging dives are pretty efficient that way.

SPEAKER_00 46:31

They're an interesting bird. Yeah, they are very interesting. They're very different than a lot of the other birds that we have here. They just look like a puffin, you know? Just look like a puffin'. We heard a little bit about the relationship drama. Is there any other relationship drama happening right now?

SPEAKER_01 46:45

Hmm. I don't really think so. They're pretty they're pretty set in their relationships. They're pretty tame. We'll keep the reality show for the p the penguins, I guess. They're definitely not as volatile as the penguins.

SPEAKER_02 46:59

The penguins are messy. And we can always do an update of Young and the Nestless and have you on. We should later this year or next year.

SPEAKER_00 47:05

I think this is a really great question. Their evolutionary lineage. What did they evolve from? What is their lineage? You know this. It was ox. Oh yeah, I guess we should kind of talk about that.

SPEAKER_01 47:15

The ox? Lineage? Hmm. I guess it would be the ox then. Yeah. The rhinoceros ox is their their closest relative, but I don't know like who came first. Or like what came first. I know that there used to be a bird long time ago called a great ox, and it was like much bigger, like a penguin-sized bird in the northern hemisphere. And so but that bird went extinct. Unfortunately.

SPEAKER_02 47:42

Aren't penguins uh uh descended from oaks, and then at what point did they split off? Like because puffins I'm guessing aren't that closely related to penguins.

SPEAKER_01 47:52

The puffins evolved from the rhinoceros oak. Oh, ocklet. I said ock earlier. I meant rhinoceros ocklet. Interesting. Because rhinoceros oklates still exist though, right? Yes. And then there are three types of puffins. So there's the horned puffin, the tufted puffin, and the Atlantic puffin. But the Atlantic is the only one that lives in the Atlantic Ocean.

SPEAKER_00 48:15

No way. That's where my island is. In the Atlantic, that's where it is. Oh, we need to get I mean, we're the aquarium of the Pacific. Specifically the Pacific. So I don't know if it's ever going to be in our plans to have any Atlantic penguins from Lundie Island.

SPEAKER_01 48:29

There's the Atlantic puffins get so much of the like puffin merch. Like they are the ones that are the most you like see them on everything. They're the most represented for sure. You don't ever see the ones with the tufts as beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 48:47

They're very beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 48:48

If you have good hair.

SPEAKER_00 48:49

I mean they only have it for a part of the time, so maybe that's you know.

SPEAKER_02 48:52

They should have it for longer. Yeah. Maybe grow your hair out and braid it. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 48:56

Then I'll take a picture of you. Then we'll make you into a stuffed animal.

SPEAKER_01 49:00

Because there are, I think, two puffin species in the Pacific Ocean and only one in the Atlantic, it's suggested that they probably started off in the Pacific Ocean and then like kind of made their way over. The Atlantic kind of branched off from that. Are they much larger? Are they pretty similar in size? They're pretty similar. The tufteds are the largest. Very cool.

SPEAKER_02 49:22

I just found out that their scientific name, Fratercula, means little brother, which is very cute. So they're all your little brothers. Also means friar. Because apparently they look like a monkey in robes.

SPEAKER_00 49:32

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 49:33

But little brother's pretty cute.

SPEAKER_00 49:34

I love that. Little bro. Okay. The last question we have for you is from our social media is are they evil? Absolutely not. Don't know what this person has against puffins, but.

SPEAKER_01 49:44

No, honestly, they come up to hand feed and they have this look on their face, like, can I please have some please, sir? They really seem like they're always saying please and thank you with their face. They do look polite.

SPEAKER_02 49:58

I like that they come out with their head slightly bowed too, and they'll like tilt their head to the side, like, please, just kind of head.

SPEAKER_01 50:04

And then they also like are walking kind of pigeon-toed, like they walk on their own feet a little bit. And so it's just like the slowest. Like they'll be a foot away from me, but they'll take like 60 steps to get there.

SPEAKER_02 50:17

I do like when they step on their own feet and just like it's a little bit more. I would do part of the clown thing. Probably. They have clown shoes and clown face.

SPEAKER_00 50:26

The clown says, So they're the opposite of evil. They're angelic. Yeah, they're perfect. Oh, I love them. I love them. So, yeah, that's amazing. Okay, Amanda. Thank you so much for teaching us about puffins today. That was amazing. I guess do you have any before we wrap up, do you have any stories that stick out to you about working with the puffins that are some of your favorites?

SPEAKER_01 50:45

I'm so bad at telling stories.

SPEAKER_02 50:47

Tell us about Elmer. And how he's everyone's favorite.

SPEAKER_01 50:50

Elmer, I think before we started this more like hands-on approach to training our puffins and Gillamots, like Elmer was the bird that was like the most social towards people. Like he always kind of hand fed. And so I think that's why he's so fun. He'll like run up to you and just be really excited to eat a lot of things. Right now we're working on training him to kind of step onto like a platform that we hold. And sometimes he does that with so much enthusiasm. He kind of topples off a little bit. So we're working on just being calm and coming onto it. And that is something as he is getting a little bit older and a little arthritis-y, we're able to kind of use that to help him move between the different levels of the cliff face. And so we call it Elevator. His Elmer Vader. Oh, it's cute. So it's perfect. Definitely a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 51:45

That's adorable. I'm figured it out years ago. He's been hand feeding the whole time. He's brilliant. He knows. And not evil. Yeah. And then he's probably like, why did everyone take so long to get jobs?

SPEAKER_00 51:56

This is great. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. I learned so much. That was a wonderful, wonderful episode. Yay. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Everyone should leave a comment on this episode and say what your favorite puffin name is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:09

Or pigeon Gillamot. Or pigeon Gillomotni. We accept all other names.

SPEAKER_00 52:13

Rowdy.

SPEAKER_02 52:13

I think Rowdy's a good Tarzan is a funny name for Chippy's my favorite. I had a dog named Chip when I was growing up.

SPEAKER_01 52:20

I'm partial to that name.

SPEAKER_02 52:22

A bird named Chippy. And so I always think of Chippy, and I'm like, oh, it's my lovebird.

SPEAKER_00 52:25

So Chippy.

SPEAKER_02 52:27

I love it. Cool.

SPEAKER_00 52:27

Thanks, Amanda. Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 52:35

Aquarium of the Podcific is brought to you by Aquarium of the Pacific, a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

SPEAKER_00 52:42

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SPEAKER_02 52:48

This podcast is produced by Aaron Lundy and Madeline Walden. Our music is by Andrew Reitzma, and our podcast art is by Brandy Kenney. Special thanks to Cecile Fisher, Anitza Viez, our audiovisual and education departments, and our amazing podcast guests for taking time out of their day to talk about the important work that they do.

SPEAKER_00 53:06

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