The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago continues to host the world's most adorable quarantine.
While the facility is closed to visitors during the coronavirus pandemic, staffers have been taking resident penguins on "field trips" to various exhibits, allowing the birds to check out the underwater scenery of the Amazon River, the Caribbean Sea, and other parts of the world ordinarily off-limits to flightless denizens of the South Pole.
The aquarium has posted hugely popular videos of the penguins' explorations online, making the black-and-white waddlers some of the most talked-about stars of our national confinement, right up there with Dr. Anthony Fauci and the cast of Netflix's Tiger King.
In the latest clip, the penguins, led by a 32-year-old rockhopper named Wellington, visit the beluga whales in the Oceanarium habitat.
Like many a Shedd-goer before them, the whales appear transfixed by the penguin, with the two species drawing near to the window of the enclosure for a closer look. We dare you to watch without squealing.
As Chicago's local CBS news affiliate points out, belugas and penguins don't encounter one another in the wild, seeing as how belugas are from the northern hemisphere and most penguins are from the south.
That could account for the animals' obvious, so-cute-we-can-barely-stand-it curiosity. In any event, it sure is refreshing to witness a social interaction between strangers that doesn't give you anxiety.
