Watch baby penguins learning to swim (video)

By EMMA GRITT
July 20, 2015

SEE five baby penguins take their very first dip.
The chicks were born at Wales’ Folly Farm ten weeks ago, and after shedding their fluffy baby feathers, are ready to learn how to swim.
Just like in the wild, the babies were forced from the family nest at around eight weeks old.

And now it’s time for keeper Catrin Thomas, 25, to step in and get cuties Cogsworth, Bagheera, Abu, Scuttle and Thumper ready for adult life.
She said: “After their parents kick them out, they’re running around not quite sure what to do.
“So at this stage we put them in nursery and teach them how to hunt their own fish.

The penguins enjoy a quick cuddle with their keepers

“In the wild, fifty per cent of them wouldn’t make it, so we have a specially built nursery to help them adapt to adult life.”
While their parents were treating them to the (unappealling) menu of regurgitated fish, they can now look forward to fresh fish thrice daily.
They’ll eat between fifteen and twenty fish a day.

Cogsworth and Thumper get used to the water

Once they have mastered eating a whole fish underwater, they’ll be placed in the adult pool with the park’s other penguins.
Sadly for Folly Farm’s visitors and staff, the penguins won’t be sticking around, and will all be sent off for a new life in a European zoo as part of a conservation programme.

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