PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Two Humboldt penguin chicks who hatched at Roger Williams Park Zoo in January made their exhibit debut last week and now the zoo is inviting the public to help name them.
Those who think they have the perfect monikers for the little penguins – one male and one female - can find out how to submit their entries online through the zoo’s website, www.rwpzoo.org, or Facebook page, www.facebook.com/rwpzoo. Entries will be accepted through the end of April and the winner, who’ll be awarded a penguin encounter, will be announced at the Zoo’s Mother’s Day event on May 8. The winning names will be selected by Zookeepers from among all the entries made.
In the meantime, those who’d like some inspiration in choosing the chicks’ names can now see them on most days in the outdoor penguin exhibit. The chicks had to be kept off-exhibit until their adult plumage began to grow in, a milestone that’s necessary for their ability to swim in the exhibit’s outdoor pool. Now that the chicks are entering their juvenile stage of development, that milestone has been reached and the chicks have been allowed to explore the outdoors with the rest of the Zoo’s Humboldt penguin flock. Visitors to the Zoo who want to see the “babies” can tell them apart mostly by their smaller size, but also by their slightly lighter, brown-grayish coloring.
The arrival of the chicks is especially important because Humboldt penguins are an endangered species. As such, they are one of the species covered by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ (AZA) Species Survival Plan Program. Species Survival Plans (SSP’s) are a cooperative population management and conservation program among AZA accredited zoos for selected species, typically those that are threatened or endangered. The births of these chicks will help to ensure the health and genetic diversity of the overall Humboldt penguin population at AZA zoos.
For more information about the penguin chicks and the Zoo’s participation in the Species Survival Plan Program, visit www.rwpzoo.org
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