VIDEO: Zoo welcomes two new penguin chicks

Rachel Gray/Woodland Park Zoo

The Woodland Park Zoo welcomed two new Humboldt penguin chicks Aug. 2 and Aug. 4.

VIDEO: Zoo welcomes two new penguin chicks

By Robinson Newspapers Staff

August 13, 2010

On Aug. 2 and Aug. 4, two more Humboldt penguins hatched at Woodland Park Zoo, bringing the number of this year’s hatchlings to seven.
The chicks represent the first offspring between 18-year-old mother Cujo and 20-year-old father Oedipus. The parents are among the oldest penguins in the zoo’s colony and also the most genetically valued breeding pair at the zoo, according to a Woodland Park Zoo press release.
Both hatchlings are under the care of their parents and are off exhibit in a nesting burrow. Before the new chicks reach fledging age and go outdoors on exhibit, they will be pulled from the nest so keeper staff can condition the birds to approach staff for hand feeding and to allow close-up visual inspections.
To help get them accustomed to swimming, the chicks will have round-the-clock access to a shallow pool behind the scenes where they can practice floating and swimming in a more controlled and less crowded environment.
Woodland Park Zoo participates in the Species Survival Plan for Humboldt penguins. An endangered species, these birds are important conservation ambassadors to teach visitors about the impacts humans have on penguins in their range countries, according to a Woodland Park Zoo press release.
Species Survival Plans are cooperative breeding programs that work to ensure genetic diversity and demographic stability in North American zoos and aquariums.
This is the first nesting and breeding season for the zoo’s colony of Humboldt penguins since the exhibit opened May 2009. The five older chicks, which hatched in April, joined the adult penguins on exhibit in early July.
Video courtesy of Woodland Park Zoo.
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