A summer school for five penguin chicks has opened for the Class of 2015.
Cogsworth and Thumper are in a flap about starting school Credit: Folly Farm
Summer holiday countdown might be on for children in Wales, but for another set of youngsters, ‘school’ is about to start. The first two penguin chicks at Folly Farm have fledged from the nest
and been taken into a special penguin nursery enclosure where they will
learn key penguin survival skills. All five penguin chicks at the zoo have been named after Disney characters - Cogsworth, Bagheera, Abu, Scuttle and Thumper.
Eventually the penguin chicks will re-join their families in the main enclosure Credit: Folly Farm
After a few months at 'Penguin school' they will graduate back into the penguin community in a few months' time.
In the wild, half of all penguin chicks won’t survive by
themselves. As they are an endangered species, Folly Farm is one of many
zoos that takes the young penguins into a nursery enclosure until their
waterproof feathers are fully grown, and they have learned to eat
independently.
Abu the penguin will learn the 'bare necessities' at school Credit: Folly Farm
Folly Farm currently has 35 penguins, including the five new
chicks. The eldest penguin, at 22 years of age, is Holly, closely
followed by her partner of some 20 years, Harry. Penguin life expectancy
is around 22 in the wild and 30 in captivity.
The Penguin Camera is located on Torgersen Island (64°46’S, 64°04’W), off the coast of Anvers Island and less than a mile from Palmer Station. Torgersen Island is home to a colony of Adélie penguins numbering approximately 2,500. This camera is seasonal and operates primarily from October to February, the Adélie breeding season. The camera is solar-powered and may sometimes experience brief outages due to inclement weather. School classrooms and other educational demonstrations will often take control of the camera, moving it to gain better views of the colony.
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