Meet the Fascinating Puffins of Animal Planet’s ‘The Aquarium’ Season Finale

There’s no shortage of interesting animals yet to explore as Animal Planet‘s The Aquarium wraps up Season 1 of its series showing everything that goes on behind the scenes at the Georgia Aquarium. In two new PopCulture.com exclusive clips ahead of the Sunday, July 14 season finale, the trainers and aquarists of the renowned facility are introducing fans to some of the most fascinating animals under their care, as well as the lengths to which they go in order to give them the best life possible.

Some of the aquarium’s most adorable residents are the horned and tufted puffins, whose personality in and out of the water have endeared them to staff and visitors alike.

“These birds are pretty cool because not only can they fly but they’re really, really good swimmers,” mammals and bird trainer Lindsey Ronis says. “So we have the tufted puffins and the horned puffins. The horned and tufted puffins are a pelagic species, which means they spend the majority of their lives out on the open ocean.”

“There’s something about them,” she continues. “The way that they move on land is so awkward, but once they hit the water, they’re totally different. They’re so at ease underwater.”

Some of the puffins were getting ready for a makeover as well, shedding their duller winter plumage for some truly stunning breeding season plumage.

“It just kinda lets everybody know that breeding season is upon us,” Ronis says. “That it’s time to start checking the burrows and seeing what kind of courtship behavior we’re seeing.”

Elsewhere in the aquarium, senior aquaist Allen Wilson and other staff members are using some interesting “mega tongs” to feed their Wobbegong sharks.

“This is our 30-foot-long pair of tongs, which we refer to as mega tongs,” Wilson shares. “It’s how we feed our animals in the deep end of the exhibit.”

“Basically I took a normal pair of tongs and rigged them backwards so they automatically close and our animals are able to take the fish off of the tongs,” he explains as he uses the tongs to feed the rare kind of shark. “So this is mega tong station. You can see we’ve got a bunch of customers ready.”

For all this and more behind-the-scenes moments with the Georgia Aquarium’s animals, don’t miss The Aquarium‘s Season 1 finale, airing Sunday, July 14 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Animal Planet.

Photo credit: Animal Planet