Ice Island
Did you know that the Ice Island is the first and only ice penguinarium in Andalusia? Inaugurated in 2002, it is an indoor, themed and air-conditioned facility that faithfully reproduces the natural habitat of penguins, birds adapted to aquatic life that also spend a large part of their lives on land. Replicating the icy cliffs of the planet's southernmost lands, it consists of a rocky peninsula covered in snow and ice and surrounded by salt water, in a glazed installation with underwater and terrestrial views. Throughout the year, the lighting and temperature cycle is regulated to resemble the seasons at the South Pole.
While you observe how they move in and out of the water, you will also learn about the four species of penguins that we host through educational panels about our species, their threats in their habitat of origin or our conservation work and how we care for them every day through environmental enrichment actions to maintain and stimulate their natural feeding, social, occupational or sensory behaviour.
Learn amazing facts about penguins
Underwater, you will discover their fast movements: did you know that penguins can swim as fast as dolphins, at a speed of up to 35 km/h! They are agile enough to catch their food or escape from predators! On land, you can see how each species looks after its eggs in a different way: in nests made of stone, inside burrows or by holding them themselves until they hatch.
Learn more about them on the educational panels, in our educational talks included in the price of your visit, or live a unique experience in the Penguin Encounter where you can go inside the cave where they live!
Success in preserving endangered penguins
Did you know that 12 of the 18 penguin species are threatened with extinction? Three of the four present on the Ice Island are in conservation programmes for endangered species (EEP), which coordinate the animals present in zoos all over Europe.
As a result of the dedicated work of our conservation team, the first king and macaroni penguin hatchlings in Spain were born in Selwo Marina in 2008 and 2009, and all the species we have taken in have successfully reproduced. Considering the threats they face in their native habitats, they are excellent ambassadors to show our visitors what they can do to care for the planet.
Recreando el ambiente subantártico en Selwo Marina
The polar regions are characterised by long winters of almost six months of darkness and low incidences of light and heat due to the tilt of the earth's axis with respect to the sun, climatic conditions related to the hormone levels that mark the breeding periods.
To favour the life, breeding and moulting of the feathers of the penguins we host and simulating the Antarctic winter and summer, a sophisticated computer system on the Ice Island regulates the lighting and temperature of the air and water throughout the year. Thus, the photoperiod and the intensity of the daily light varies between the 24 hours of summer and the few hours of the austral winter, coinciding with the summer in the northern hemisphere. Thus, between the months of May and July, the light intensity is the lowest of the whole year.
