The New England Aquarium’s annual ice sculpture was completed this week ahead of Boston’s waterfront ice sculpture walk, which took place Saturday with 32 sculptures. And the aquarium’s entrance this year could be a bit of a show, as it features its crowd-pleasing African penguins.
“I think people love this species because they know it’s endangered,” said Kristen McMahon-Van Oss, the aquarium’s pinniped (think seals and sea lions) and penguin curator. “They really are at great threat of extinction, possibly even in the next five to 10 years. So the fact that people like to watch and listen to penguins really allows us to make those connections and inspire people about these animals and hopefully get them really involved in conservation efforts.”
For the 10-foot-wide, 8-foot-tall exhibit, Don Chapelle of Brilliant Ice Sculpture carved 10,800 pounds of blocks of ice in his Lawrence workshop, then fused the pieces together and made the finishing touches on the aquarium Wednesday.
“It is always an honor to work with such an esteemed institution as the New England Aquarium,” Chapelle said in a news release. “We have been associated for 16 years and it has been a pleasure to design and sculpt all kinds of mammals, fish and fauna.”
One of the aquarium penguins depicted in Chapelle’s sculpture, the one appropriately in the center, is “something of a superstar,” McMahon-Van Oss said.
That would be the 24-year-old female named “Beach Burro,” which was given that name because African penguins are known for their braying, donkey-like vocalizations.
“She’s actually depicted in that ice sculpture wearing sandals or Tevas,” McMahon-Van Oss said. “So Beach Donkey has had a condition called bumbo foot or pododermatitis, and his feet have had some calluses, for lack of a better word, on the bottom of their feet. So she has had some foot treatments that the vet team has put in place. . . part of the plan was to put her in custom-built Tevas. So, those are shown in the ice sculpture. She’s front and center among those seven penguins you’ll see.”
McMahon-Van Oss said getting the public excited about its animals, including African penguins, connects to a central part of the aquarium’s mission of education and conservation.
“African penguins are very close to our hearts for a number of different reasons… more than half of all of them are geriatric animals,” he said. “In the wild, African penguins along the southwestern coast of Africa live for 10 to 15 years. So a pretty short life expectancy. But in aquariums, in zoos, they can live much, much longer. In fact, we have several in their 20s, several in their 30s, and we even have a 41-year-old.”
With temperatures reaching 50 degrees this weekend, aquarium staff are cautiously hoping the sculpture will last until at least New Year’s Day. McMann said they will use dry ice and a tarp to protect it from the elements, but he encouraged visitors to come sooner rather than later.
“With ice sculptures, when they start to melt, the detail is the first thing to go,” he said. “So if people could go out and see that ice sculpture very soon, I think that would be great because right now the penguins have real detail with their feathers and their eyes.”
