Picky penguins at Japanese aquarium unhappy about cheaper fish

HAKONE, Japan — Rising prices and inflation are impacting people around the world, but when a Japanese aquarium moved to save money by changing the fish its penguins were fed, the animals made it clear they were displeased with the change.

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The Hakone-en Aquarium, an hour southwest of Tokyo, started feeding the penguins “saba,” or mackerel, to cut costs, CNN reported. Previously, the animals were fed “aji,” or Japanese horse mackerel, which they very much enjoyed. The price of aji has climbed 20-30% in the last year, the aquarium told CNN.

Video from Japan’s All-Nippon News Network shows the penguins turning up their beaks at the offered food, refusing to eat the saba.

“They take it into their mouths at first, but then they decide they don’t like it and drop it,” Hiroki Shimamoto, the head of the aquarium, told AFP. “They sense something is off.”

In addition to changing the food, the aquarium has also had to turn off lights and change how frequently it cleans the tanks filters, taking care the animals are not harmed, Shimamoto told Vice.

Hakone-en Aquarium is home to 32,000 animals, and the cost of feeding them has been making thing difficult, CNN reported. Shimamoto said that no animals will go hungry, and that animals who refuse the new food are given the old food.

“All of the animals at the aquarium are family and we do our best to keep them healthy,” Shimamoto told CNN. We would never force any animal to eat what they don’t want.”

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