African penguin chicks latest addition to Memphis Zoo

Credit: Jim Weber

December 9, 2015 — Angie Whitfield with the Memphis Zoo holds onto one of the zoo’s three penguin chicks to keep the fluffy young bird from waddling away Wednesday morning. The trio of African Penguins were born in mid October, and — after a few weeks with their parents — are being raised by keepers to get them more used to humans. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal)

 

By Kayleigh Skinner of The Commercial Appeal

                                                                     Credit: Jim Weber

 

December 9, 2015 — Angie Whitfield with the Memphis Zoo holds onto one of the zoo’s three penguin chicks to keep the fluffy young bird from waddling away Wednesday morning. The trio of African Penguins were born in mid October, and — after a few weeks with their parents — are being raised by keepers to get them more used to humans. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal)

Three new penguins were hatched this fall at the Memphis Zoo.
The chicks were each hatched between Oct. 17 and Oct. 21 to two sets of parents.
Mundo, 27 and Penelope, 7, produced two of the chicks and Opus and Genevieve, both 15, produced the third.
The fluffy new additions are the first penguins to be hatched at the zoo in two years. The zoo has raised 39 penguins since 1990.
The trio will be on display in the penguin exhibit in the spring. They spent their first weeks of life with their parents, but they are now being hand-reared by zoo keepers. The penguins will be named later this week once their sex is determined through genetic testing, said Angie Whitfield, director of marketing for the zoo.
The African penguins, an endangered species, will molt their soft gray down feathers within the next year and eventually grow into the sleek black and white plumage of adulthood.

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