EO Editor - Rachel Daneault, Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Kelp Kit for Penguins and Seabirds

By Kristin Dvorak, Assistant Lead Keeper, Outdoor Bird Area
and Dave Bernier, Curator of Mammals
Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, Illinois

Built in 1981, Lincoln Park Zoo’s Kolver Penguin/Seabird House is home to a variety of penguin and seabird species. The penguin exhibit houses chinstrap, rockhopper and king penguins while Atlantic puffins, tufted puffins, razorbills and common murres reside in the seabird exhibit. When determining ways in which to enrich the birds and enhance the visitor experience at the zoo, we looked at the natural history of these species. Since several of the species housed at this facility come from areas where kelp beds naturally occur, we decided to provide their exhibits with artificial kelp plants.

The addition of artificial kelp would provide some complexity for the birds as well as add some color and visual interest to the area. As we looked into purchasing artificial kelp plants from professional exhibit fabricators, we found that most of them did not fit our needs. Their ability to stand up to manipulations by the birds was questionable, they were not naturalistic in appearance, they were too short for our exhibit needs and/or they were too expensive. Therefore, we decided to build our own artificial kelp plants.

Our goal was to find a product that was inexpensive, naturalistic in appearance, durable for all species, easy to add and remove from the exhibit, and enriching. We also wanted this to be something that could be added or moved within the exhibit for novelty so that it could be added to the enrichment rotation for the birds in this building. Below is a description of how we developed the artificial plastic kelp (referred to as kelp for the rest of the paper).

Figure 3: View of kelp in water.
(Photo by K. Dvorak)

How to make the kelp:

• Cut roller shade into three-inch wide strips that vary from three to six feet in length (you will need to cut two of the same strips in order to conceal the tubing).
• Spray paint the “inside” of both pieces.
• Cut tubing to appropriate length (depending on how long the roller shade strips are).
• Plug both ends of the tubing with the caulk.
• Lay roller shade pieces so that the spray painted pieces are touching each other and the tubing is sandwiched in between. (see Figure 1 for side view)
• Make small cuts in the roller shade on both sides of the tubing and secure it by placing a cable tie through the small openings. Use cable ties every four-six inches down the strips.
• Spray paint one side at a time.
• Make slits approximately three to five inches long in the deck matting and arrange the kelp pieces accordingly.
• Each strip was placed through the slits and secured using a one-inch machine screw, with a washer on top and a washer with a nut a on the underside (see Figures 2 & 3 for picture of kelp out of the water and in the water).

We encountered a few challenges. Initially, it was difficult to find...

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