Larry, a veteran king penguin at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, will be 29 years old on Feb. 18.
If the day’s temperature at 11 a.m. is less than 50 degrees, he will, with his chin up, feet swinging, waddle through the zoo along with the other kings and a keeper that day in a penguin parade.
This enchanting spectacle of the kings is expected to round out with a final parade a week later, after 14 years, said Rickey Kinley, a head bird keeper at the zoo.
Kinley, 47, has been with the Cincinnati Zoo for 30 years and has always cared for the zoo’s birds, including its penguins. His time at the zoo began even before Larry’s. Larry arrived as a baby in 1996. Kinley, a teenager in 1993.
Penguins delight Cincinnati kids, grownups – and 30-year zoo bird keeper
Kinley has witnessed during his tenure just how drawn people are to penguins. He attributes the admiration to the penguins’ human-like appearance. “Penguins walk upright on two legs,” he said simply.
He has had opportunity to interact closely with penguins, and he says they all have their own ways of interacting with people. Among Kinley’s most cherished times were when he escorted a Magellanic penguin, Buddy, who died in 2022 at the elder age of 35 years, 4 months and 28 days. The pair partnered for off-site preschool appearances.