NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — ​Abby Pietrow wakes up every day at 7:30 a.m. with penguins on her mind.

“I come in, first thing in the morning I’m checking on our penguins to make sure they’re doing well overnight and were making up that penguin diet with a whole lot of fish, sorting through it, thawing it and feeding it to our birds for breakfast,” she said.

In the last six months, she’s been part of the team at the Aquarium of Niagara assisting with a new research project on Preen Oil to help rebuild the Humboldt Penguin population.

“Penguins are completely waterproof and a large part of that is because of the oil that coats their feathers. Now that oil is not only important for waterproofing, but were looking into how it might be used as some sort of signal to pick that best mate or to identify different penguins within the colony,” Pietrow said.

The Humboldt penguin is a threatened species whose populations have considerably declined over the last several decades.

“They’re at about, I believe somewhere in the range of 40% of the historical population,” Pietrow said.

The aquarium is accredited through the Association of Zoo and Aquariums and is part of a species survival plan for the Humboldt penguin. The goal is to make sure that if their numbers become dangerously low, there’s a healthy and genetically diverse population to reintroduce to the wild. The first successful hatching took 14 years to produce penguins, but just last month, two baby chicks were born at the aquarium, proving their work isn’t for the birds.

“Even at a month old, they’re about the size of a football and starting to stand up on their own and they’re very, very loud,” Pietrow said.

And while the sea lion shows and fun times with fish are a big draw, officials say they are essential to continue these important studies.

“All the revenue that we raise from admission dollars goes back into the care of our animals who are ambassadors for their different species,” Christine Streich, communications manager for the Aquarium of Niagara, said.

And making sure the Humboldt penguins stick around for all ages to enjoy.

“Each species is a little different. There’s always opportunities to learn and enjoy,” Pietrow said. “It’s been amazing to be hands-on with the chicks that we’ve had and the rebooting our breeding program. It’s been a very amazing time to be a keeper here at the Aquarium of Niagara and I can’t wait to see what other adventures are in store.”