African Penguins Pedro
(left) and Buddy stand in their enclosure at the Toronto Zoo on
Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young)
Penguin chick hatched by Gozi and Puff at Toronto Zoo
The first chick born to
penguin pair Gozi and Puff, under an African penguin breeding program,
is being hand-raised by staff after the pair rejected the egg.
African penguins Buddy and Pedro have been nesting and breeding “actively” with their female mates, the Toronto Zoo confirmed Friday in a statement announcing the birth of a penguin chick.
The wee bird is the spawn of a third couple, Gozi and Puff, and will be named Eldon or Ellie once the sex has been determined.
Buddy and Pedro haven't been as successful in their own attempts fatherhood.
The same-sex penguin pals — whose bromance garnered international attention last fall — were separated from each other by their handlers in November and paired up with females as part of a species survival program.
Buddy and his partner, Farai, laid two eggs that hatched in February, the zoo said. Sadly, the excited new parents built a too-tight nest and smothered the chicks to death by accident.
Tom Mason, curator of birds and invertebrates at the zoo, chalked it up to inexperienced parenting.
“They were great parents, but they were a little too much,” he said. “They just went overboard, and they literally suffocated (the chicks) with love.”
Pedro and his partner, Thandiwe, haven't laid any eggs yet.
It seems that Pedro, an inexperienced lover, came on a bit too strong at first, turning off his mate by being “overly amorous.”
“He was a bit aggressive,” the zoo curator said. “He didn't know how to handle the girl.”
For African penguins, laying eggs can take anywhere from a few days to one month after the female has ovulated.
Typically, one egg is laid, with male and females sharing joint responsibility for incubation.
Mortality of chicks is high within the first three weeks of hatching, both in the wild and in captive.
The zoo's first penguin chick is being hand raised by staff because parents Gozi and Puff rejected the egg as it was hatching. The chick can be viewed at the penguin house at scheduled times throughout the day as of March 10.
A fourth penguin couple, Colby and Greenbird, have laid two eggs, which are expected to hatch in March.
The Toronto Zoo is one of 40 participating in a multi-year breeding program for African penguins, an endangered species native to South Africa.
With files from Kate Allen
source
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Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
The first chick born to penguin pair Gozi and Puff, under an African
penguin breeding program, is being hand-raised by staff after the pair
rejected the egg. The chick was born on January 28, 2012 and will be
known either as Eldon or Ellie, once its gender has been determined. THE
CANADIAN PRESS/ho-Toronto Zoo-Ken Ardill
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