When Lambert started losing his vision and slowing down a few steps, it became clear that he needed to be relocated to a place where he could age safely and still be with his friends.

But he couldn't be placed in just any nursing home — because he is a critically endangered African penguin. Instead, the New England Aquarium in Boston, where the 33-year-old Lambert was born and has lived his entire life, decided in February to open a geriatric island for him and its six other aging penguins.

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“Honestly, it sort of started off as a joke. It’s like, ‘Oh, well, why don’t we give them an old folks home?’” Eric Fox, associate curator of penguins at the aquarium, said. “But the more we were looking at their welfare data an

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