Zoo's penguins march to their own drummer

First there were the hilarious 3-D zoo escapees Skipper, Private, Kowalski and Rico in the smash hit "Madagascar." Then the heart-touching, dangerous quest to start a family and keep the baby alive in "March of the Penguins." And after being nominated as VH1's Biggest Breakout Star, starring in a Coke commercial and making headlines for an infamous New York Central Park Zoo gay couple, 2005 has been the year of the penguins.

Here in Utah, the state has its own animated flightless birds — namely, Hardy, Gia, Puff, Rocky, Bluebird, Blackbird, Whitebird, Greenbird, Newton, Dancer, Scrappy, Smooty, Flap and Shaker.

At Hogle Zoo, the 14 feathered friends have become an increasingly popular attraction since the release of "Madagascar" and "March of the Penguins."

"Everybody's all about it right now. They draw a big crowd," said Brandy Von Weissenstein, a member of the animal care staff at the zoo who oversees the penguins. "They're funny. They have incredible personalities. People don't think they do much. But if you watch them for a while, it's like a soap opera."

Cuddly, mild and kind of dull are just a few of the misperceptions people have about the creatures — most brought on by movies and commercials.

Zoo public relations and marketing specialist Stacey Phillips has had to deal with some of the bigger falsehoods. Since the nationwide release of "March of the Penguins" this summer, Phillips has had numerous patrons accuse the zoo of animal cruelty because of the penguins' warm living conditions. During the spring and summer months, the penguins are kept outside in a sunny, rocky pool but they're kept inside during the winter and fall, especially when there's snow on the ground.

The species of penguins Hogle owns — African — originate from the warm, coastal waters of South Africa and cannot tolerate temperatures below 40 degrees.

"We get a lot of 'There's snow on the ground, why won't you let them outside?' " Von Weissenstein said. "Because there's a giant movie out there, everyone thinks, 'Why aren't they in the snow?' There's a good 12 species that don't live in the snow."

Total, there are 17 species of penguins, all of which reside in the Southern Hemisphere. But only about five species actually live in chilly places like Antarctica; the rest thrive in warmer locales, like Australia, New Zealand, the Galapagos Islands and Peru.

Hogle's eight female and six male penguins, also referred to as black-footed penguins, are the only species that breed in Africa and are found nowhere else. The African penguin is also on the Species Survival Plan , a program that aims at conserving and maintaining a threatened population.