During a long, cold winter, little can lift your spirits like a visit to the season’s most cheerful animals: penguins. Between their friendliness and endearing waddle, penguins are cute enough to brighten anyone’s day, even when the ground is slick with slush and the sky gray. Few people, however, have the opportunity to interact with these lively birds, unless you are lucky enough to be a visitor to the Saint Louis Zoo.

Every winter, from November to mid-February, the zoo hosts its annual Penguin Parade. On Sundays at 2 p.m., the keepers allow the penguins to leave the indoor exhibit and play outside. The public can come to Penguin and Puffin Coast to watch as the birds waddle through the crowd and run about in the snow as well as interact with them in a manner which they cannot in the usual exhibit.

“It was a very unique experience because it is pretty rare to have so few boundaries between the zoo observers and the animals,” junior Christina Ruggieri said. “It really gives you a greater appreciation for them.”

The parade began eight years ago as an enrichment opportunity for the birds. It allowed them to go out in the snow and have a change of scenery. Soon the penguin keepers were inviting other zoo staff and, subsequently, the public to watch the penguins frolic. The parade is now part of a series of winter programs which the zoo boasts, sponsored by Delta Dental.

The penguins are very eager to get out of the confines of the exhibit and are never forced to go outside but rather want to do so.

“They get very excited. In fact, there is a behavior that is specific to…King penguins…called ecstatic behavior when they throw their heads up into the air and make a certain noise, and they do it while they’re out there,” Michael Macek, the zoo’s curator of birds, said.

Normally, anywhere between seven and 15 birds line up for the walk outside and opportunity to show off for the crowd.

Two kinds of penguins are featured in the parade, the previously mentioned King penguins, which are the second largest species, and the Gentoo, a middle-sized penguin, recognizable by the white triangle on their foreheads. Both are considered sub-Arctic penguins because they live in 45-50 degree weather as opposed to true Antarctic temperatures. This allows for Saint Louis Zoo’s unique opportunity of allowing them to go outside in winter as well as have a year-long walk-through exhibit in which patrons are sharing the same space with the penguins.

Both species are very friendly and approachable and will often walk up to spectators during the parade. The Gentoos have a very specific greeting; often, they will “go up to little kids and do [a] bowing behavior to them,” Macek said.

The event, despite not being widely advertised, tends to be packed, often having more than 1,000 people in attendance. It is not uncommon to see children standing on rock outcroppings or being lifted by their parents above the crowd for a better view of the birds. As the penguins walk through the crowd, the keepers maintain safety for both the birds and the zoo patrons, though the only real rule, according to Macek, is that “we don’t want anyone reaching out to touch the birds.”

The parade nevertheless allows for very close interaction; the penguins, having been bred in captivity, are used to people and are not at all shy about coming up to the crowd, even trying to run through it at some points to reach the snow.

“[The Penguin Parade is] a whole different kind of zoo experience,” junior Betsy Edershile said, “and a cool way to ring in the winter…it feels very festive.”

Certainly, if the cold has got you cooped up or feeling down, playing with penguins at the Saint Louis Zoo is a surefire way to lift you out of your funk.