Visit the California Academy of Sciences on any given day, and you'll find visitors oohing over the giant anaconda, marveling at the enormous freshwater fish of the Amazon, and staring in wonder at the desert lizards. But what stops them in their tracks are the South African penguins.

Penguins are so popular at the Academy they have their own auditorium where visitors can sit on benches five deep. Penguins have recently been the subject of several documentary films and even an animated children's movie.

But films are not the reason why people respond to penguins. According to senior aquatic biologist Pamela Schaller, people have always loved penguins because they identify with them so strongly.

“Penguins stand upright,” Schaller says. “Their locomotion on land is inherently humorous. They waddle. They make an obvious choice of mate, and establish long-term relationships. Both parents participate in rearing the young.” And, as countless jokes and New Yorker cartoons remind us, they look like they are wearing a tuxedo.

Visitors to the penguin exhibit should note some key behaviors. "Head gestures are meaningful," says Schaller. "The mates bow their heads to each other." To make the bond of specific couples more obvious, the Academy uses same-colored bands on the penguins' wings to identify bird-to-bird loyalty. Couples will stake out territories and even fight to defend them. If penguins are seen scuffling in their exhibit, it's probably over territory.

There is a definite hierarchy in the penguin colony at the Academy. The dominant birds will exhibit chasing and herding behavior. The older birds establish a pecking order, and literally will put the juveniles (the birds with dark heads) in their place.

Nonetheless, penguins are social creatures. As penguins establish themselves socially and feel more comfortable in their surroundings, they spread themselves out. For penguins there is safety in numbers. As Schaller says, “A lonely bird is a nervous bird.”

Penguins are finding a strong ally in the Species Survival Plan, a program sponsored by the California Academy of Sciences, along with 44 other scientific institutions and zoos across the U.S. and Canada. The goal is to to ensure a healthy population level for South African Penguins, whose native habitat is endangered. The penguin breeding program seeks to help this species avoid inbreeding and spread the gene pool across as wide a range of penguins as possible.

Participating institutions meet every two years to draw up a plan. The program looks at the penguin demographics and needs for each institution. They record the breeding pairs and track their offspring. Depending on the age of the penguins and their genetic make up, potential breeding couples will be determined. If penguins have already established themselves in a couple, these pairs will not be broken up out of respect for their life-long mating bond.

A computer program called PM 2000 tracks the genetic heritage of each penguin in a database. It determines their kinship and identifies the birds most valuable for breeding. Among the 631 penguins currently in captivity, the program looks for the lowest average mean kinship. That is, the most valuable birds are those that share the least amount of genes with each other. Those birds, which are genetically under-represented, are destined to become breeding pairs.

Institutions in the breeding program are trying to propagate the most variable genes possible. In the next hundred years, the program will have established a 95% genetic diversity among its penguin population. The goal is to create a genetically diverse population that can aid the conservation of this species in the wild.

In 2005, the penguin colony at the Academy received four penguins from Boston's New England Aquarium. These have already mated. During the past two years these penguins have produced five chicks. By the time the new Academy opens, the penguin exhibit should be up to its capacity of 18 birds, thanks to the Species Survival Plan.

A Day in the Life of an Senior Aquatic Biologist

Teach a penguin to swim. Hand-feed them herring. Turn your body into an impromptu floating island. It's all in a day's work for Pamela Schaller, senior aquatic biologist at the California Academy of Sciences.

Schaller's day at the Academy begins with a walk around the exhibit floor. The first thing she does upon entering the building is to check on the exhibits and the health of the animals. At 8 am, she joins the rest of the Academy's biologists for the daily status meeting.

Together, they discuss which animals are being moved, if any new animals are due to arrive, whether veterinarians are scheduled for visits, which exhibits are going to be changed or built out, and what animals might be breeding and require special attention.

Following the meeting, Schaller will prepare food for the eight South African penguins and five juvenile penguins currently on display. She'll then feed the new penguin chicks. When that's done, Schaller will clean the exhibits, scrub the pool, the floor, and the windows of the aquarium, and last, check the ozone and water quality levels in the exhibit.

At 11 am Schaller will conduct the first of two public penguin feedings for the day. Schaller hand-feeds the penguins in the water (which they seem to prefer) a diet of vitamin-enriched herring and capelin. Adults will eat 10% of their body weight each day. The juvenile penguins will consume up to 20% of their body weight. During the feeding, Schaller will don a microphone so she can communicate with the public on the other side of the glass wall explaining what she is doing, answering questions, and educating the public about penguins in the wild.

If required, Schaller will assist in veterinary check-ups on the penguins, weighing birds, and performing physicals.

One of Schaller's favorite activities is to supervise the growing chicks during their first days of swimming. Schaller dons a wet suit and gets in the water with the chicks. “The penguins treat me like a human island,” she says. “When they get tired they just climb right on.”

Supervising juvenile penguins during their first time swimming is done in a shallow quarantine pool. They are watched until they become strong swimmers then are introduced to the adult penguins slowly. It is important to take several weeks of introduction until a young penguin is comfortable with all of the colony and the exhibit.

At 3:30, Schaller performs another public feeding. She'll spend the remainder of the day keeping records, reviewing the designs for the new exhibit in Golden Gate Park, and preparing for the arrival of five more penguins from Tautphaus Park Zoo in Idaho Falls.