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Two Penguin Chicks Hatch at the Aquarium
Two penguin chicks hatched at the Aquarium in late May. Credit: Photo by Robin Riggs
June 30, 2016
The Aquarium is announcing the arrival of two Magellanic Penguin chicks that hatched here in late May. Parents Kate and Avery and Patsy and Robbie, residents of the Aquarium’s June Keyes Penguin Habitat, cared for the baby penguins on their nests until the chicks were ready to go to their behind-the-scenes nursery to learn to take whole fish from keepers for feedings and to swim in shallow pools.
The one-month-old chicks will be on public view when they join the other birds in the penguin habitat sometime in August. In the meantime, the chicks can be seen via webcam. The Penguin Chick Cam is courtesy of explore.org, the philanthropic multimedia arm of the Annenberg Foundation.
The two chicks hatched in 2016 represent the fourth generation of Aquarium-born penguins. One penguin hatched in 2015 (Lily), four hatched in 2014 (Paddles, Jayde, Mattson, and Skipper) and two hatched in 2013 (Heidi and Anderson).
In celebration of this year’s baby birds, the Aquarium is offering an opportunity to name Kate and Avery’s chick through its Adopt an Animal program. Those adopting a penguin chick at the $100 level or higher before September 30 will receive two Aquarium admission tickets and the opportunity to suggest a name for the chick. The Aquarium’s animal department will choose one winner, and that winner will be able to go behind the scenes for a feeding and training session with the penguins.
Magellanic Penguins are a temperate species native to the coasts of Argentina and Chile in South America. It takes between thirty-eight and forty-three days of incubation before a Magellanic Penguin egg will hatch. Magellanic Penguin parents take turns incubating the eggs on the nest and feeding and raising the chicks after they hatch. The chicks fledge, or replace their downy newborn feathers with water-tight adult feathers, after about ninety days. The Aquarium’s penguin chicks are expected to fledge in August and join their parents and the other penguins on exhibit in the June Keyes Penguin Habitat.