By ERIC LINDBERG — July 4, 2009
The first Humboldt penguin to be successfully hatched at the Santa Barbara Zoo is resting in a quiet area until it learns how to swim, zoo officials announced yesterday.
The chick, its gender yet to be determined, had been foster-reared on exhibit until it emerged from its shell last month. Zookeepers are caring for the chick for the next few weeks until it is old enough to take its first dip.
“This is the age when the chick would naturally begin to gain independence in the wild,” Sheri Horiszny, the zoo’s director of animal programs, said in a news release. “We want to make sure the chick grows its waterproof feathers and can swim well before it has access to the big pool in the exhibit.”
The baby chick is growing quickly, zoo officials said, noting its weight increased from 90 grams the day after it hatched to 501 grams 10 days later and 1300 grams by the end of June.
Its parents, the only pair of the zoo’s 15 adult penguins that have a recommendation to breed under a species survival plan, arrived at the zoo last year from the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.
“This pair had laid fertile eggs in the past, but had never been successful in rearing their young,” Horiszny said in the release. “As a result, we researched the histories of all our penguins to find one with past parenting success.
“We have a male that had successfully fostered eggs before, and we placed the egg with him and his partner, also a male,” she continued. “The foster pair were dedicated incubators, and fed the chick well.”
The zoo’s penguin exhibit, known as the Crawford Family Penguin House, includes a 5,670 cubic-foot pool and opened just three years ago. Its inhabitants are listed as vulnerable by the World Conservation Union.
Non-captive Humboldt penguins live in their native habitat along the coastal desert regions of South America, from Peru to Chile. The total world population of the species is estimated at 12,000 breeding pairs, although that figure is quickly declining.
Zoo officials said overfishing of its food supply, commercial removal of guano used by the penguins for burrows, entanglement in fishing nets and predators are all having a serious impact on the species. Experts are concerned that Humboldt penguins could be extinct within decades.
Source:
http://www.thedailysound.com/070409penguinchick
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