Penguin Cove
Little Penguin Conservation Center
The Paul Ogle Foundation, Inc.
This tropical exhibit will introduce you to a species of penguin that arrived at the Louisville Zoo in 2016 — little penguins! Penguin Cove allows guests the opportunity to observe the penguins’ social and natural behaviors in an expansive outdoor exhibit area that will transport you to the rocky sand-filled coasts of Australia.
Though they may look like chicks, our little penguins are fully grown. Little penguins are the smallest of all penguins, standing about a foot tall and weighing around two pounds. They live in colonies along the southern coast of Australia, around the nearby island of Tasmania and the entire coastline of New Zealand.
Birdlife International estimates the wild 
population at just fewer than one million. Although numerous, the species is on the decline as a result of oil pollution, predation by non-native wildlife and drowning in fish nets.
Your Louisville Zoo is participating in an AZA Species Survival Program project to conserve the Little Penguin in partnership with the Taronga Zoo, Sydney, the Zoo and Aquarium Association of Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific region, and the Government of Australia.
Penguin Cove is now open, weather permitting when temperatures are 45 degrees or above. You can find this fun exhibit in the Islands Zone.