Oldest penguin in Britain celebrates 35th birthday with cake at wildlife sanctuary

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The oldest penguin in Britain has celebrated her 35th birthday at a wildlife sanctuary.Spneb, who lives at Paradise Park in Hayle, Cornwall, is the oldest Humboldt Penguin in the UK and is one of 20 of her species living at the park.As reported by Cornwall Live, at 35 the elderly penguin is over twice the age of a Humboldt Penguin's life expectancy - which ranges between 10 to 15 years.On Sunday, April 16, Spneb celebrated her birthday alongside her proud keeper Archie who had made an impressive fish themed cake for the birthday girl.In a sweet video congratulating Spneb on her milestone birthday, Archie said: "Not only are we celebrating Paradise Park's 50th birthday this week, we're also celebrating Spneb's 35th birthday today - so we've made her a brand new birthday cake to celebrate her special day. "Typically out in the wild Humboldt’s Penguins only live to about 10 to 15 years old, but Spneb has reached an amazing 35 years old - more than double her life expectancy. "We hope that she's going to live much, much longer as well because she's still very healthy.

She does look a little bit dirtier than the rest of the penguins, but that just comes with her old age."She has not been able to go through her moulting in the last few years - but amazingly even just last year she was still producing eggs."Spneb's unusual name was picked by keepers after she underwent treatment for a dangerous fungal disease called Aspergillosis in 2007.

At the time, she was being treated with a drug 'Sp' using a nebuliser, or a 'neb' - eventually giving her the unusual name. You can take a look at Spneb through Paradise Park's live penguin cam by clicking here. Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily