In a nest, high up in the penguin condos in our Splash Zone exhibit, African blackfooted penguins, Umngane and Dassen have been keeping a secret; they were guarding an egg! Although our staff believed the egg to be viable, we were not entirely sure until the egg had "pipped". (That's when an egg is first cracked by a chick at hatching time, as it starts to make its way out into the world.)
On Saturday, January 8, the young chick finally emerged from the shell, much to the delight of us all, and perhaps to the surprise of first-time parents!
The new chick was first checked and weighed by staff veterinarian, Dr. Mike Murray and then returned to its proud parents for care and feeding. A second exam two days later revealed the chick had doubled in weight, (4.2 ounces) which is a great sign that the parents are feeding it regularly.
This is very early days for such a young chick with new parents. There's a natural high mortality rate for young birds, making our staff cautious and yet optimistic!
If all goes well, the chick will stay in the nest with its parents for around three weeks. After that time, it will try to leave the nest and at that point, for its own safety, it will be removed from the exhibit to be raised by staff.
This will also give us an excellent opportunity to acclimate the chick to people. This way, in the future, it will be able to act as an education animal, interacting with the public, either here or at another zoo or aquarium in the future.
Once the chick reaches about 80 days of age it will be old enough to try some short stays back on the exhibit. Our staff will want to ensure that it can swim, get in and out of the water safely and will be welcomed by the other members of the colony before it becomes a full-time resident.
At some point, a blood test should reveal if we have a girl or a boy. Unlike many song bird species, penguin gender cannot be differentiated by color or size and only a blood test will reveal this. The name, possibly, will follow the convention of our current colony, with birds named after a region in South Africa, their native home.
Though many of our penguin pairs have made nests before and sat on eggs (replicas), this is the first time the Aquarium has been permitted to raise penguin chicks. Our birds are part of Species Survival Plan for African blackfooted penguins. This pair are genetically important to the captive population and therefore we received permission for them to breed from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums who manages the plan.
We will keep you up-to-date with further progress of this exciting news, both here on the blog, and on Facebook.
Yippee! Great work Monterey Bay Aquarium in creating the conditions to sustain new life! I love you all!
Posted by: Juanita Brown | January 14, 2011 at 09:46 PM
Great post as always. Thank for creating time to write...Will continue to follow you.
Posted by: slot makinaları | January 14, 2011 at 10:44 AM
Amazing! Monterey Bay Aquarium!!!
What a incredible place that aquarium
is. I love going there. I become a child when I am there.
Posted by: Barby Dornbusch | January 13, 2011 at 05:47 AM
@Wally - I have now posted a response. I was waiting for answer from our husbandry staff regarding the "recognition" question and only just found the response in my inbox. As I'm sure you can imagine, it's been a busy day with a new baby on board!
Posted by: Alison Barratt | January 11, 2011 at 09:50 PM
@thewarrren. great questions!
1) when the chick returns to exhibit at around 80 days, it will be considered "fledged" and therefore won't need parental care. Once birds fledge they don't need to maintain a relationship with parents. Being raised by staff will not impact the relationship between this chick and other penguins. Many birds are hand-raised under other situations and are accepted by flock/colony.
2. Before we had a permit for captive rearing, any eggs laid were removed from the nest very early in the incubation process and replaced with replicas. This is common practice in zoos where adding to the population is restricted for any reasons. It can be very difficult to tell at an early stage if an egg is viable (fertilized) and in fact we did not know for sure even with this one that it was until the hatching started.
Posted by: Alison Barratt | January 11, 2011 at 09:39 PM
the information about the little penguin was so great. can't wait to hear more!
justy G,11-los angeles
Posted by: justy | January 11, 2011 at 08:51 PM
Welcome to the world, baby penguin!!! So nice to see you being so cute. :D
Posted by: BrevilleJE900 | January 11, 2011 at 08:38 PM
Two questions were asked by "Thewarren", and the aquarium answered neither one in its respose. Are they hiding something?
Posted by: Wally | January 11, 2011 at 08:21 PM
A good name him would be, Enero, for the month of January.
Posted by: Anntoinnette Silva Backus | January 11, 2011 at 07:05 PM
This is great news!
Posted by: Mike | January 11, 2011 at 04:31 PM
Hello baby, welcom - Congratulations Monterey Bay Aquarium!!!
Posted by: Cornelia Lange - Germany | January 11, 2011 at 03:21 PM
What fantastic news! I can't wait to take my grandson down from Santa Cruz to try to get a peek at the little one. The exam video is precious and shows exactly how small it is. It has a nice round belly too. Carli Stevens
Posted by: Carli Stevens | January 11, 2011 at 02:58 PM
very exciting news!
I have 2 questions
1) will the parents and colony recognize the baby after it has been raised by humans?
2) were there previous viable eggs that were not allowed to hatch until permission was given?
thanks much
Posted by: thewarren | January 11, 2011 at 02:28 PM
Kim, permission for our birds to breed comes from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, as part of its Species Survival Plan, to ensure genetic diversity.
-Monterey Bay Aquarium
Posted by: Monterey Bay Aquarium | January 11, 2011 at 01:49 PM
Thanks! This is so fun to learn about. We moved out of state and miss the Monterey Bay Aquarium so much. We'll be back, though -- hopefully soon.
Posted by: Claudia Dorsey | January 11, 2011 at 12:54 PM
Very exciting. Congratulations!
Posted by: Elisabeth | January 11, 2011 at 12:08 PM
why was the aquarium previously not permitted to raise penguin chicks?
Posted by: kim h | January 11, 2011 at 11:43 AM
Welcome, baby!
Posted by: Myownigloo | January 11, 2011 at 11:36 AM
Oh thank you so much for sharing this wonderful event. I have a question...is it unusual for captive penguins to take care of their young after they hatch??? I am looking forward to more fotos and good news as our little friend grows and blossoms!!!!
Thank You!
Posted by: betty murphy | January 11, 2011 at 11:34 AM