They’re as demanding as the most pampered pop diva, but you won’t find champagne or a specific colour of M&Ms on this duo’s backstage rider — just a chilled salt-water pool and plenty of herring and capelin.
That’s because these pint-sized celebrities are African penguins. For most of the year, 10-year-old Dayo and 20-year-old Skadu can be found at their home in Sea Life Caverns, part of the Marine Life attraction at the West Edmonton Mall. But the birds make a star turn in Northern Rescue, a new family drama series streaming now on CBC Gem and Netflix.
The show follows the West family — dad John (Billy Baldwin) and kids Maddie, Scout and Taylor — as they try to pick up the pieces following the unexpected death of their mother, Sarah. On the advice of Sarah’s sister Charlotte, the family relocates from the big city to the fictional northern Ontario town of Turtle Island Bay and takes up residence in the “Aquaverse,” a run-down former theme park, where they find themselves responsible for the care of a penguin named Tux.
This presented a challenge to the show’s producers, both in terms of finding birds to portray Tux and, once the right penguins had been found, getting them to the set in Parry Sound, Ont.
“Having never worked with a penguin before, the learning curve was quite steep,” says producer David Cormican. “I started learning everything I could about penguins and what you can and can’t do with birds.”
Dayo and Skadu travelled from Edmonton by plane in a special crate, accompanied by their handlers, Cristina Castrejon and Megan Whyte. In Parry Sound, where production took over the local curling rink, they were moved into a custom-built, temperature-controlled enclosure that included a pool and a ready supply of fish.
“They basically had the nicest green room of all the stars,” says Cormican.