A woman who always wanted to work with underwater animals has found her 'happy feet' after sliding into a dream job at a Norfolk aquarium.
On Thursday, January 18, Paige Buisson was on 'penguin duty' at the SeaLife Centre in Great Yarmouth.
The black and white feathered Humboldts - there are nine of them at the attraction - formed an orderly queue as the 22-year-old fed them sprat from a bucket.
With their bellies full, the birds then waddled away before diving headfirst into the water for a quick post-lunch swim.
"It's a very busy day," Ms Buisson said, ahead of National Penguin Awareness Day on Saturday, January 20. "I give them breakfast, lunch and dinner. When they're not eating they like to go for a swim.
"We also play with them. We play bubbles with them. They love following the bubbles."
Most of the colony arrived from other SeaLife centres across the UK while two of the penguins were born in Great Yarmouth - the most recent being Blossom who was born in 2014.
Each bird wears a unique identification tag which enables staff to keep a record of their individual eating habits.
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But Sergio Rabbai, the aquarium's display curator, said staff can now recognise them without the tags.
"We know them by their spots and by their eyes," he said. "And they have their own different personalities.
"Everyone has their own favourite. When I joined, Ringo was always the first to come for feeding.
"He's still always the first to eat."
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Ms Buisson, who studied marine biology at the University of Essex, has always loved animals, especially marine life.
"As a child I watched a lot of wildlife documentaries on TV. It was always a dream to feed penguins," she said.
"It's amazing. I love it, especially promoting awareness of the species."
'A vulnerable species'
Penguins first came to Yarmouth in 2009 after topping a local poll of “most wanted” animals that would form the basis of a new attraction at the aquarium.
Humboldts are medium sized South American penguins from coastal Peru and Chile.
Their current population is estimated at under 32,000, but is declining, and they are classified as 'vulnerable' on a list of threatened species.
The main danger to Humboldt penguins is the destruction of their habitat due to guano harvesting, which serves as their nesting material but is used as a fertiliser.
Other threats include over-fishing and climate change.
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