VIDEO: Hyatt Regency Maui Celebrates Penguin Awareness Day

January 20, 2016, 4:30 PM HST
* Updated January 20, 4:34 PM

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In celebration of Penguin Awareness Day, Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa celebrated its African Black-Footed Penguins and invited guests to a special penguin feeding today to learn more about the charismatic creatures.

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Guests were also invited to partake in penguin cookie decorating, take pictures with its penguin mascot, and watch as the resort’s seven playful penguins ate, swam and waddled around.

There was also a Special Penguin Feeding in the Atrium Lobby at the hotel’s penguin habitat.

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Hyatt Regency Maui is the only resort in Hawaii with an on-site penguin habitat.

Hotel representatives say the African Black-Footed Penguin thrives in the Hawaiian weather as they are warm-climate penguins.

On average, they consume 100 pounds of fish every week. They are described as “typically curious and social, and can be observed sunbathing, digging burrows in the sand, braying similar to donkeys and swimming.”

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The species of penguin is listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of endangered species due to a combination of threats they face in the wild; however they have successfully reared and reproduced six of the seven current penguins on property at the Hyatt Maui.