Penguins are popular aquarium residents, but their complex social, thermal, and spatial needs create significant welfare challenges that not all facilities adequately address.
Aquarium penguins face welfare challenges specific to their biology: insufficient water volume for natural swimming and diving, inappropriate temperatures, inadequate social grouping, and respiratory disease risk from fungal spores in damp environments. The most welfare-positive aquarium penguin facilities provide large volumes of cold, clean water, species-appropriate social groups, veterinary monitoring for aspergillosis, and substrates allowing burrowing or nest behaviour. Poor facilities expose penguins to chronic environmental mismatch.