Flagship visitor attraction set to ‘pick up a penguin’

The flagship attraction is looking at converting a play area in its Kingdom of Ice section to create a refrigerated home for the Antarctic creatures. It is understood it will not be open until next Spring.

Chief executive Colin Brown said a decision would be made next week: “We will be putting all the figures to the board on July 20.” He added: “There will be a tank and it will be chilled.”

Mr Brown remained tight-lipped on the type of penguins that will be going on show, but said they would be getting the only ones in England of their type, outside London.

He said previous objections to there being penguins at the attraction had been because they were “extremely smelly”, adding: “The ones we would be getting were born in captivity and are surplus to requirements. They breed very well in captivity; they mate for life.”

A perennial favourite, the creatures’ popularity has soared as a result of the hit move March of the Penguins, and they are bound to prove a crowd puller at Hull.

The attraction celebrated its 10th anniversary in March. Thought to be the second most successful Millennium project in the country after the Eden Project in Cornwall, which cost nearly 10 times as much to build, the £45.5m tourism and education centre has welcomed 4.5 million visitors since it was opened by Prince Andrew in 2002.

The iconic building, designed by Sir Terry Farrell, bills itself as the world’s only “submarium” and is home to a bewildering array of creatures, from seahorses and sharks to blue poison arrow frogs. It gained a wedding licence in 2007s. At its busiest, it welcomes almost 5,500 visitors a day.