
Here’s Adrian Walls, head of birds at ZSL, explaining a little bit more about the cute chicks.
Penguin Beach at ZSL London Zoo is home to a colony of South American
Humboldt penguins, currently listed as vulnerable by the IUCN
(International Union for Conservation of Nature), and the group have
successfully bred a number of chicks, including one that has fledged his
nest after being doted on by his parents earlier this year.
The two baby penguins are currently being looked after by keepers in the zoo’s custom-built nursery.
So that they don’t get lonely they’ve been given lots of similarly miniature friends to play with.
It looks like they’re being made a COMPLETE fuss of – here is one in a more laid-back mood being treated to a delightful little tickle.
Jus’ hanging out, being hand-reared.
It looks like the baby penguins have everything they could wish for. Everything, it would seem, except names.
Which is why ZSL is launching a competition on its Facebook page on Friday to christen the two chicks. Because the team can’t tell what gender they are now (they will have to send the chicks’ feathers off when they are older to determine this), the public is being asked to suggest unisex names.
We think this one looks like a Jo/Joe.
And this one is definitely a Sam.
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