Thursday, December 22, 2011

Penguins pelt panda visitors at zoo with poo

People queuing to see the panda enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo are being hit by penguin droppings as the curious birds have been watching proceedings. Rockhopper penguins have been standing along the edge of their enclosure since the pandas arrived earlier this month. The penguins are higher than the panda enclosure due to the site being on Corstorphine Hill.



Now officials are planning to build a glass panel in a bid to stop people being hit by the guano. Gary Wilson, Edinburgh Zoo's director of business operations, said: "Our rockhopper penguins in particular have been watching the events at the panda enclosure below with great interest, ever since work started on the enclosure. "Extremely curious birds, they often gather next to the wall to see what's happening below.

"We're hoping it's not a case of monochrome jealousy, but one or two of our rockhoppers seem to have had surprisingly good aim. We're just looking into a solution right now, probably in the form of a glass panel so that the visitors' view of the penguins isn't obscured."



A visitor who was standing in the panda queue on Sunday said: "We were queuing to see the pandas when a man in front shouted out in surprise that his jacket had been hit by a big dollop of penguin poo. It just missed me and my family and it was really oily and stank of fish. It was disgusting. It looked like it would be really hard to clean off. It was quite funny but the zoo should do something so it doesn't happen to anyone else."

With news video.

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