African Penguin Takes First Swim

(NECN: Brian Burnell, Mystic, Conn.) - A few months ago, Mystic Aquarium set up a penguin cam. Thousands of people went online to watch an African penguin chick get bigger, move off the nest and take its first steps. Today was a big day for those penguin watchers as the juvenile took its first swim.

Meet Blue-Blue, the youngest penguin in the African penguin exhibit at Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut. At 78 days old, Blue-Blue is full grown and hard to tell apart from the older penguins.

"Only looks different by the color of its plumage. It has juvenile plumage which is all gray with a cream colored chest. And a little fuzzy I noticed. A little fuzzy. There's about maybe 30% of its chick down on its head and shoulders," says Laurie Macha of the Mystic Aquarium.

You may be asking why Blue-Blue is referred to as an "it" instead of a "him" or "her". That's because the only way to tell the gender of a young penguin is through a blood test which they haven't done here yet. Blue-Blue is one of the chicks featured in the aquarium's web cam set up right after he was hatched. For over 2 months thousands of people have been logging on to watch his progress. This was the biggest day of all for Blue-Blue. His first day testing the water. Surprisingly he was a little hesitant.

"Isn't that what penguins do? Go in the water? Yeah. We see that with all the chicks. They're very hesitant. They've never experienced a big body of water yet and usually afraid to get their feet wet for the first time but once they hit the water then its old hat to them. They just take to it."

And Blue-Blue certainly did to the delight of the crowd.

"He's learning how to maneuver. He's got to learn how to use his feet and wings to turn and spin and its accidental that he was doing barrel rolls and we tend to see that a lot. Some of them won't go under the water for a while but once he got under he was really trying to figure out how to use his wings and by tomorrow he'll probably have it mastered pretty well."

As much fun as it is to watch Blue-Blue take his or her first swim there's a serious future for this penguin. He or she is part of the breeding program here and the African penguin in the wild is in steep decline.

"Over the past 5 to 8 years there's been a fifty percent decrease in the population size. If it continues at this rate they can become extinct within our lifetime."

Experts think it might have something to do with climate change but research is underway now to pinpoint the cause.

Story and video courtesy of NECN@
http://www.necn.com/Boston/SciTech/2009/04/15/African-penguin-takes-his/1239829116.html