Dubai’s Happy feet

Pumpkin loves to dance and his crazy two-step is infectious. Pebbles likes nothing better than to shimmy around on her belly making people laugh with her antics. McFatty is constantly hungry and when he’s not eating he prefers to be left alone. Welcome to the cool world of the 20 penguins, 10 Kings and 10 Gentoos, that can be spotted at Ski Dubai. On any given morning Squeaky, a Gentoo – you can tell by her long tail – and her friends greet their handlers with soft cooing sounds.

“We greet them with a ‘hi’ in the morning, and they coo back at us,” says penguin handler Amy, patting a King who waddles around her playfully. The penguin pauses to stare at her then obligingly rubs his head on her shin. Smiling, Amy throws a plastic bowling pin into the colony of birds and they scramble to grab it. Pebbles picks it up and begins waddling away with the others except for McFatty, who is racing behind them. It’s their favourite game.

King-like characters

The King penguins are slower to get into the spirit of the chase. “They are more stately and think they are beneath such childish games,” chuckles Tom Scheffer, the operations manager at Ski Dubai. “You may think we have handlers training them, but we don’t. In fact, we don’t force our animals to do anything.’’

The penguins, who came from SeaWorld in San Antonio, Texas, are not given any kind of professional training at all. “But they come when they are called, just like your dog would,’’ says Tom. Though most pet pooches might not want to spend their life on snow and ice, penguins get distressed if the temperature goes up, even a few degrees, which is why the temperature is a constant 6°C.

It’s easy to see why children love to play with them. They are perky, playful and friendly but they can be mischievous too, as McFatty – who is not very keen on swimming – discovers. A group of Gentoos gang up and start crowding him at the top of a slope, deliberately nudging and pushing McFatty down towards the water. He tries desperately to scramble up, flapping his wings, trying to hold his ground. But he is soon overpowered by the crowd and is forced to give in. He quietly slides into the icy cold water.

Later the penguins crowd around baskets of fish, and the greedy McFatty is the first to race for his share. “They are as individual as human beings,” says Amy. “And that is part of the attraction for visitors.”

The group of children who are gathered around in their snowsuits clap their hands in delight. Hearing the sound, the penguins cock their heads at them and flap their wings, revelling in the attention. Tom is proud of his prized penguins. “We received an award,” he says. “We came second in the People’s Choice Awards category from the International Marine Mammal Trainer’s Association last year at the conference in Hong Kong.”

The award was given for maintaining the facility at world-class standards and for ensuring the birds are well looked after.

The penguins have been in Ski Dubai for 16 months but Tom says that it took about a year to prepare for their arrival. “We have reached over and above the international standards required to house penguins here,” he says.

“We are a part of their breeding programme as well. We were careful not to pick birds from the same gene pool.

Touching hearts

Tom says he and his team are not in a race to have the biggest group of penguins. “Our programme is very simple. We want to touch people’s hearts and make sure they have a fantastic time interacting with the penguins,” he says. Seeing the smiles on the children’s faces as they play with the penguins, it’s evident that Tom has achieved that and more.

Whether it’s watching the Gentoos plunging into the pool or staring into the water because of their acute instincts (they’re checking for danger beneath the surface), there’s always something to learn about these cute creatures.

A few feet away, two children wait to pose for a photo with a penguin. Right on cue, Squeaky waddles over and positions herself between the pair and cocks her head. There’s a flurry of camera shutters and one of the little girls is beaming: she’s just touched and posed with one of the most fascinating birds on the planet. And as for the penguin, she waddles off after spotting another parent with a camera waiting for a close-up!