Sad news for fans of the penguin lady Sandy from the Münster zoo: The animal known from television had to be put down. Many zoo visitors will remember her.
Münster – She shone at the side of Harald Schmidt, Günter Jauch and even in the “Tatort”: Germany’s most prominent penguin lady Sandy died at the age of 25.
She had to be put to sleep, the all-weather zoo in Münster announced on Wednesday. Small consolation: In the wild, Sandy would probably only have lived half his age, said a spokesman. In the past few years, Sandy suffered more and more from osteoarthritis and was unable to move more and more.
Penguin Sandy became known in 2009 for her special relationship with her zookeeper Peter Vollbracht and for her unusual romance with the media star. The 50 centimeter tall Sandy was then a guest on the WDR show “Ask a time the mouse”, in the talk shows by Harald Schmidt, Stefan Raab, Johannes B. Kerner and Günter Jauch. It ate out of Eckhart von Hirschhausen’s hand, was at the ARD television service and at “Pinguin, Löwe & Co”.
Sandy played the penguin “Schulze” in the TV film “Zoo Whisper – Don’t get into the enclosure!”. She even made an appearance in the Münster crime scene – in the episode “Serpent Pit”. In autumn 2004, WDR-2 listeners voted her their favorite zoo animal in North Rhine-Westphalia. In the wild, African penguins are considered to be critically endangered by climate change, commercial fishing, and marine pollution. dpa
