Roast Beef, one of the newest baby penguins at the New England Aquarium, made a public appearance today in front of Faneuil Hall. It may be 80+ degrees, but Roast Beef was looking cool in his air-conditioned penguin-mobile.
His nickname is “The Ladies’ Man,” says Jeff Prasnal, of the New England Aquarium, with a thick Boston accent: “He is absolutely a bachelor. Loves the attention. He is who he is and he won’t change for nobody.”
Penguins mate for life, but Roast Beef is still playing the field. “There’s a lot of little ladies for him to keep occupied with, and he is one of our better-looking gentlemen penguins, so he does quite well for himself,” Prasnal says.
Video by Jeff Carpenter for WBUR.
Update: A spokeswoman for the Aquarium e-mails me with a gentle correction: “Roast Beef isn’t a baby. He’s an adult penguin and often makes trips to schools for educational events. What was new about today’s event was the cool, air-conditioned, penguin mobile he was in – that was our first time using it.”
Hubbub is embarrassed. But come on, he’s an awfully small adult.
Kudos to superchill intern Marielle Segarra for her reporting.
Very cool “Summertime” penguin music.
How is he a small adult? Have you seen a lot of adult African penguins? He’s actually pretty standard for an adult. Then again, you don’t live in South Africa, so I wouldn’t expect you to know. For all I know all lobsters are 50 lbs because i saw one in Cape Town in a glass case one time…
Jade, you are right. I do not purport to know very much about penguins. I look at Roast Beef and think, “That is a small animal.” And I want to hug him.