Good etiquette is expected at meal time in the penguin colony, but the diners with the best manners are found on a new, special island for birds of a certain age.

There, geriatric African penguins don’t have to worry about younger birds bombarding the buckets of fish delivered by trainers at the New England Aquarium in Boston.

“They all get a good opportunity to eat and take their time and not feel rushed, not get pushed off the island by another animal that’s anxious to eat,” said Kristen McMahon, the aquarium’s curator of pinnipeds and penguins.

Six seabirds have moved to the island for “retired” penguins since it opened in February. Their relocation is meant to address the large number of penguins at the aquarium who are living well beyond the age they would be expected to reach in the wild. About half of the aquarium’s 40 African penguins are older than the bird’s life expectancy of 10 to 15 years, Ms. McMahon said, and some have doubled it.

The residents of the “country club for older animals” are sectioned off from three other islands inhabited by penguins via a mesh gate in the water. Below, a penguin trainer cuddling Lambert, 32.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.


Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.


Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.