Zoo’s penguins take stately stroll to their new home

The Detroit Zoo’s 83 penguins took a stroll Thursday to their new home.

Zoo handlers escorted the waddling waders along a celebrity-style red carpet (which was actually blue, to reflect their icy cold habitat) lined with cheering young fans and posing for pictures along the way.

One even came back for an encore with the paparazzi.

It was moving day from their old habitat to the new Polk Penguin Conservation Center, the largest penguin facility in the world, which is slated to open April 18.

The center will have 325,000 gallons of 37-degree water, 10 times more than their current home. It will be the deepest penguin aquatic environment anywhere outside their native Antarctic waters, allowing them to dive 25 feet below the surface.

It’s an immersive experience for zoo-goers, who enter into a 4-D environment simulating the look and feel of an Antarctic expedition ship churning through ice-pocked water. Two transparent tunnels under the water feature will allow visitors to observe penguins gliding gracefully above them, the way they can see polar bears and seals swimming in the zoo’s Arctic Ring of Life exhibit.

For those who want to know more about Gentoo penguins, one of the species in the zoo’s collection, world-renowned polar ecologist and penguin expert Bill Fraser will have a presentation 6 p.m. Sunday at the Detroit Zoo’s Ford Education Center. Tickets are $25 on the zoo’s website.

Zoo members can see the new penguin habitat from 5-8 p.m. April 18-21, April 25-28 and May 2-5.