Penguins at the Scarborough Sea Life Sanctuary are reportedly on anti-depressants because they cannot handle the cold weather and other winter conditions.
The Humboldt Penguins located on the coasts of South America can normally cope with the conditions, but the select bunch at the sanctuary are being bothered by consistent winds, and rain, currently hitting the continent The Guardian reported.
"Humboldts in the wild on the coast of Peru and Chile can be subjected to some pretty wild extremes of weather," Lyndsey Crawford, a curator told The Guardian. "What they don't get, though, is weeks of almost daily downpours and high winds. After the first week out, birds were just a bit subdued, but after over a month now, they are thoroughly fed-up and miserable," Crawford told The Guardian.
The penguins tend to downgrade into depression more intuitively than a human being so a medication known as uppers is used to help prevent the penguins from going into a further depressed state The Guardian reported.
"They're doing the trick so far, but we are all praying for the weather to change and at least a few successive days of sunshine to give the penguins the tonic they really need," Crawford told The Guardian.
The penguins were reportedly scared by an unwanted guest near their habitat at the sanctuary April 25, 2011 according to BBC News.
"Penguins are very susceptible to stress, they like their routine and any change can prove threatening to them," Mike Salt general manager at the sanctuary center told BBC News. This incident would have been really frightening. They have been clearly upset and were off their food for several days," Salt told BBC News.
The penguins were given stress relieving medication in June 2008 after a teenager gained access to their surroundings and ran after them BBC News reported.
A penguin named Piglet, who is part of the group, was taken from their surroundings, and later located stressed out in a garden.
