There is nothing we love more than cute little animals, and one of the cutest by far is a little penguin named Cookie that lives at the Cincinnati Zoo. He was captured on video recently by aspiring author Patricia Sund who was working there as a Guest Zookeeper while doing research for her book.
If you are an animal lover, then you will love the little video clip she posted on her YouTube Channel.
“This is our friend Cookie. He is sort of the mascot,” said Patricia.
Cookie lives in the Bird House section of the zoo along with dozens of other bird species.
Some of his neighbors include Andean condors, flamingos, and several different species of macaws just to name a few. Cookie, himself, is a little blue penguin — the smallest species of penguin in the entire world. Little blue penguins are native to Australia and New Zealand and they are sometimes called fairy penguins because of how tiny they are.
Although, you’ll notice in the video that, unfortunately, Cookie has a small health problem.
“If you notice on his foot, he has got a bandage because he has bumblefoot, so we have to change his socks everyday.”
Bumblefoot is a type of bacterial infection that is common among birds. It causes them to have an inflammatory reaction on their feet.
While Cookie will be healed up soon, in the meantime, his bandages definitely cause him to walk a little funny.
Patricia can be heard calling for him across the room, and Cookie immediately responds, waddling his way over to greet her — just a little slower than he normally would.
He also chirps a few times to let everyone know how excited he is.
However, the funniest part of the video is Cookie’s crazy dance at the end.
One of the employees tickles Cookies stomach and he goes absolutely nuts.
He loves it! He starts shaking and flapping his wings uncontrollably and making all kinds of excited noises. We had no idea penguins were so ticklish, but Cookie certainly is.
While he is not the biggest penguin we have ever see, he is definitely the cutest, and he doesn’t let his diminutive size prevent him from making his presence known.
“I finally got that on tape,” Patricia can be heard saying after Cookie’s crazy dance.
It looks like Patricia is having a lot of fun in her role as Guest Zookeeper. We wonder if we would be allowed to go play with Cookie if we told the zoo we were doing an article on penguins. It would be like a dream come true. He has so much energy and is one of the happiest penguins we have ever seen.
We might have to make a visit to the Cincinnati Zoo sometime to say hello. After you watch the video, you’ll understand why. You might even find yourself planning a trip there to go visit Cookie too.
Watch the full video of Cookie the little penguin doing penguin things and being cute below.
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