Two male Humboldt penguins cautiously guard the entrance to their cave in the zoological park in Bremerhaven, northern Germany. (Focke Strangmann/Associated Press)The Calgary Zoo has scaled down its plans for a polar exhibit to include only penguins, and zoo officials are looking south rather than north for inspiration.

Antarctic Landing, pegged at $24 million, will replace the previously announced and controversial $120-million Arctic Shores proposal, which was supposed to house polar bears, seals, Arctic foxes and beluga whales.

The scope of Arctic Shores had already been scaled back in 2007 when plans for a beluga tank were dropped.

About 60 penguins in four species — Humboldt, King, Gentoos and rockhopper — will be moving into the planned Antarctic Landing exhibit, which is expected to be 1,672 square metres in size.

"Our visitors are pretty excited about it," said Grahame Newton.

"The costs rose to the point where [Arctic Shores] was no longer affordable for the zoo. So what we did was we reduced the scope of it and broke it down into more manageable pieces so that we could kind of play as we went."

The zoo has already hired a full-time curator who is an expert in penguins.

Michael Alvarez-Toye, a spokesman for the Calgary Animal Rights Coalition, said scrapping Arctic Shores was the right move, but he suspects it had more to do with pressure from sponsors than not having enough money.

"Corporations aren't going to fund things … when it is something as contentious and controversial as bringing polar bears, when independent studies, every study done, shows they do not thrive."

In June, the zoo announced it was closing its stingray exhibit, which had seen 44 of the creatures die since it was unveiled last year.