This May, Woodland Park Zoo is going black and white and green all over.

That’s because the Humboldt penguins will return to the zoo in an all new, sustainably built “green” exhibit that will save 3 million gallons of water a year.

The new exhibit is set to open to the public on Saturday, May 2.

A colony of 20 endangered Humboldt penguins will move into an all-new 17,000-square-foot exhibit.

The new, naturalistic exhibit features shoreline cliffs, viewable nesting burrows, rocky tide pools, crashing waves, and a beach, recreating the desert coast of Punta San Juan, Peru‚ home of the largest colony of wild Humboldt penguins.

With special windows and acrylic walls, dramatic underwater vantage points will offer guests nose-to-beak viewing as penguins splash, dive and “fly” underwater at speeds of up to 17 mph.

Visitors will see these flightless birds preen, breed and squabble over nesting sites much as they do on the shores in the wild.

The penguin exhibit is built sustainably, using geothermal energy and an innovative filtration system.

The exhibit is also designed to contain and recycle all stormwater runoff thereby preventing the pollution of natural water sources like Puget Sound.

It is estimated that only 12,000 endangered Humboldt penguins survive in the wild.

Overfishing of anchovies‚ the penguin’s primary food source‚ and other human activities, such as the harvesting of guano, which penguins rely on to build nests, pose the greatest threat to their survival.

For more information about the new exhibit, visit www.zoo.org/penguins, or call 206.548.2500