The Oldest Penguin in Edinburgh Zoo Killed After a Fox Broke Into Its Enclosure

The oldest penguin at Edinburgh Zoo was killed after a fox entered its enclosure, according to workers.

Penguin killed in the enclosure

(Photo : Hannelore Foerster/Getty Images)

Mrs. Wolowitz, a 35-year-old northern rockhopper with a "big personality," was assaulted late Wednesday, as per The Guardian.

Other penguins in the enclosure were not harmed and were doing fine, according to the zoo.

The zoo wrote in a tweet Thursday night, "Sadly, we lost her last night after a fox broke into our penguin cage." Fortunately, the rest of our colony was not injured and is doing well.

It went on to say that zookeepers examined the cages daily, but there was always the chance of wild animals breaking in.

"We're looking at what we can do to strengthen the barrier," it added.

More than 100 birds of three kinds live at Penguins Rock, Europe's largest outdoor penguin pool.

Colchester Zoo lost its 21-year-old Patagonian sea lion in June.

Paris, who had been in the zoo for 19 years, died during an ear infection test "despite all best efforts to heal her."

An electrical malfunction at a petting zoo caused a fire last year, killing cockatoos, macaws, parrots, meerkats, armadillos, and skunks.

"We will never forget the magnificent creatures that we have lost in such awful circumstances," wrote the barn at Maldon Promenade Petting Zoo in Essex.

Some of the little fellas maintained at our private farm were retired, resting, or former unwanted pets that we tried so hard to care for, they added.

Read more: The Story Behind Two Widowed Penguins of Melbourne Skyline

Penguin vulnerability

Penguins appear to be ideally adapted to their habitat, sliding down icy Antarctic hills and dashing across freezing seas, as per National Geographic.

However, the captivating birds were not always flightless aquatic acrobats: the transition from flying to swimming necessitated the development of a nearly whole new set of talents, body forms, and functions.

A new study utilizes an unparalleled mix of fossil records and genetic data to map that development in unprecedented detail-and to investigate how climate influenced penguin fates.

According to study co-author Daniel Ksepka, an avian paleontologist at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, penguins is evolution's most amusing product. They've evolved a completely different body type and lifestyle than their forefathers.

The study, published today in the journal Nature Communications, indicates that during the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction 66 million years ago, early penguins were unexpectedly quick to adapt to newly established environmental niches throughout the Southern Hemisphere.

After dinosaurs died out, there was more area for other creatures to proliferate, and penguins filled in varied temperatures and biomes throughout the world's southern half.

However, the study also finds that penguins have the slowest known rate of evolution among all birds, implying that the pace of genetic changes has slowed dramatically since they transitioned to marine life after the mass extinction.

According to the study's authors, this calls into doubt their capacity to swiftly adjust to the dizzying rate of current climate change.

Penguins have to adapt to frequent temperature fluctuations over millions of years after evolving for oceanic settings.

When the most recent glacial epoch began, a new surge of penguin species diversity occurred slightly over two million years ago.

Penguins moved and were frequently cut off from other groups as ice sheets increased and habitats altered.

Penguins developed over hundreds of thousands of years, separated by ice, into the wide array of penguin species that exist today.

While prior studies predicted this mechanism, the new genomic-fossil data combination provides the most compelling evidence yet.

Related article: Where on Earth Did the King Penguins Go?