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By The Drum Team, Editorial

January 11, 2011 | 2 min read

Edinburgh Zoo is maximising the popularity of some of its biggest attractions through pioneering use of social media to boost visitor numbers.

Millions of virtual tourists from overseas can now view many of its top attractions, such as its penguins, which now boast their own webcam channel to allow geographically remote nature lovers to catch up with the latest animal antics.

Penguincam, as it has inevitably become known, has become such a hit that 1.5m fans of the arctic creatures have logged in to p,p,p,p pick up a Penguin.

Nearly 30,000 facebook users have “liked” the feed which has been tweeted 4,700 times.

It is likely that a "pandacam" will be introduced in future after the Zoo signed a deal with the Chinese government to bring two prize specimens to the city on loan.

Sadly the camera’s night vision needs some work, when The Drum logged in Scotland’s notoriously early winter nights had cast a pall of blackness over the fishy critters.

Edinburgh Zoo's Penguincam from Jonathan Melville on Vimeo.

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