An aquarium in the former County Hall on the south bank of the Thames has named its two new baby penguins after ‘two standout women of the past eighteen months’.
Sea Life London Aquarium has chosen Raducanu and Gilbert as the names for its two female Gentoo chicks, which were born earlier this year, in a ‘fitting tribute’ to two British heroines of recent times.
Bromley-born Emma Raducanu won the US Open at the age of just eighteen earlier this year, while Dame Sarah Gilbert was in charge of the team that developed the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
Catherine Pritchard, the aquarium’s general manager, said: “Now the sex of the penguin chicks has been established it is a celebratory moment for the Aquarium and we wanted to name our new females after two standout women of the past eighteen months.
“Emma Raducanu’s recent win at the US Open Championship was a massive success for British sport; and Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert has played a life saving role in the battle against the Covid 19 pandemic and therefore we felt it a fitting tribute to commemorate their successes and mark their moments in time by naming our penguin chicks after them.”