It also outlines the needs of various invertebrates and vertebrates to ensure they remain healthy and well cared for. Zoo Animal Welfare Innovation Award was won by Edinburgh Zoo for their Penguin Cone Feeder. The Penguin Cone Feeder is used to deliver fish in a controlled manner to the zoo's population of gentoo, king, marconi, and rockhopper penguins while they are underwater. Seeking to get away from hand feeding on land and interested in encouraging their penguins to show natural underwater feeding, Edinburgh zookeepers modified a traffic cone so that its tip is just large enough to allow their fish of choice, herring, to pass through. The cone is then filled with fish and suspended upside down in the main penguin pool, allowing the head of the first fish to protrude slightly from the tip of the cone.
Any penguins seeking to feed have to swim underneath the cone and remove each fish individually.
The cone feeder reduces the problem of unwanted fish sinking to the bottom of the main pool and polluting the water that commonly occurs if multiple fish are thrown into the water for the penguins to feed on, and stops herring gulls competing with the penguins for the fish. The cone feeder has proved very successful and studies pre and post-enrichment have shown that the penguins increase the amount of time in the water, and increase natural feeding and foraging behavior such as porpoising. The Animal Welfare Information Center U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service National Agricultural Library 10301 Baltimore Ave.