Spartan Profiles: Alex Waier

THE GREAT PENGUIN RESCUE

            In 2000, an oil spill near South Africa proved catastrophic for area penguins, some 19,000 of whom were covered in oil. That was about half the South African population of penguins.  An incredible rescue effort ensued, led by American penguin experts like Alex Waier, ’87, curator of birds at Milwaukee County Zoo. 

            Waier was for many years supervisor of aviculture at Sea World, Orlando.  “We were fortunate that this happened during school holidays so we had upwards of 1,000 volunteers, both college and high school students,” says Alex.  “We trained them to clean and medicate the animals. It took several hours to save each bird because you had to feed them electrolytes, scrub them with vegetable oil, and bathe them in very hot water. You had to handle one bird at a time.” 

             In the end, after a month and a half, Waier and his group were able to save more than 90 percent of the birds.  That effort was documented on film, and a 30-minute broadcast about the rescue effort on Discovery for Kids later won an Emmy award.  “It was very neat,” says Alex. “It feels really nice that something you learned, from my years of being a penguin keeper at Sea World, paid off in a practical sense.”

             A native of Midland, Alex majored in zoology at MSU.  “I still have regular contact with most of my roommates at State,” he notes.  “I was up there for the Michigan game.  It was a heartbreaker.” 

            After MSU, he got a job at Sea World in California and was assigned to raise baby penguins from the Falkland Islands.  “I got hooked,” he recalls.  “There’s no better way to start your day than getting up in the morning and seeing 200 baby penguins waiting to be fed and treated.”