Name that penguin

Name that penguin, zoo says

By Charles McChesney / The Post-Standard

May 12, 2010, 12:09PM

 
 Submitted photo Hatched on March 27, this Humboldt penguin still has no name. 

The Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park is holding a contest to name the penguin, one of nine hatched at the zoo this spring.Syracuse, NY -- There’s a baby penguin at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park and he needs a name.

If you’ve got an idea for one, you’ve got until May 20 to send your suggestion to the zoo.

For the second time in two years, the zoo is offering the public a chance to name a penguin. The firstborn of this year’s nine penguin hatchlings is a male, said zoo spokeswoman Lorrell Walter.

 
submitted photo Same penguin, displaying dancing ability

.Last year, the zoo got 379 suggestions. Already on Tuesday, hours after the contest had been announced, entries were flooding into the zoo, Walter said.

Last year, the winning name came from Ashley Redhead of Bridgeport. The 15-year-old suggested “Marisol,” a combination of Spanish words that translates to “sunny sea,” Walter said.

Walter said contestants would do well to consider a Spanish name again this year. The nine new Humboldt penguins are native to Spanish-speaking Chile and Peru. All the Humboldts born at the zoo have Spanish, or Latin-derived names, said Walter. There’s a Jake, but he – and the name - came from another zoo.
“If people want a shot at winning,” Walter said, “they really should make sure it has a Latin influence.” Plus, she said, “be a little creative.”

Suggestions can be e-mailed to contest@rosamondgiffordzoo.org. They’ll be whittled to five by a zoo committee. Those five will be posted online for voting from May 24 to May 31.

A winner will be announced at the June 3.

The winner will be named the adoptive parent of the penguin for a year and receive a VIP tour of the zoo.
Contact Charles McChesney at cmcchesney@syracuse.com.

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Return of the Peng-i....

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Preening Penguin
Originally uploaded by goldenmushroom

You're shoelaces are untied!!!


(gotcha!)

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Juvenile Emperor Penguin
Originally uploaded by mgsbird

Calling on an ice floe near Snow Hill Island, Weddell Sea, Antarctica.

Image of the Day (Monday)

2010_03_04_IMG_8557
Originally uploaded by Jason the Argonaut

Yellow-Eyed Penguin juvenile

Dudley Zoological Gardens

Dudley Zoological Gardens has Successfully Reared More than 150 Humboldt Penguin Chicks

Mon, 5/10/2010 - 12:09 PM
By Jill Hitchman
West Midlands, UK - Rare birds at Dudley Zoological Gardens have flown the nest as part of a worldwide breeding programme. Five young Humboldt penguins have been transferred from the West Midlands tourist attraction to Birdland Park and Gardens, in Bourton-on-the-Water.

The four females and one male, all aged two, will boost the Cotswold attraction's breeding colony by widening its gene pool, as part of international conservation efforts.

It follows the transfer last November of five young Humboldt penguins from DZG to Exmoor Zoological Gardens, which previously had a colony of just six birds.

DZG is home to the largest group of Humboldt penguins in England, with approx 60 birds currently in the colony. Its highly successful breeding programme has been recognised by BIAZA (the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums), winning its award for sustained breeding of a species in captivity.

Pingu, who is 19-years-old, is the oldest penguin in the colony and was the first one to be bred at Dudley. He was hand-reared by keepers and hatched in April 1991. DZG has successfully reared more than 150 chicks since then, with youngsters transferred to the nine different zoological collections, including Twycross, Marwell and Paultons Park.

DZG Curator Matt Lewis said: "We have got one of the best breeding programmes in the country for Humboldt penguins. There are usually about a dozen chicks bred here each year. "We have also supplied hand-rearing notes to other collections to help them care for their chicks."

The Humboldt penguin is native to South America. It is named after the cold water current in which it swims, which was named for explorer Alexander von Humboldt.

Photo: DZG Curator Matt Lewis with a baby Humboldt penguin.

To view Dudley Zoological Gardens' web page on Zoo and Aquarium Visitor, go to:  http://www.zandavisitor.com/forumtopicdetail-2354-Dudley_Zoological_Gardens,_West_Midlands,_England

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Feed Me!
Originally uploaded by David M. Cobb

... from Penguin News Today...

(And may all your eggs be good ones!) *smile*

New penguins on the (ice) block

• Mary Papadakis
• From: Sunday Herald Sun
• May 08, 2010 4:51PM

Melbourne Aquarium has received new penguins from New Zealand. The new Kiwi gentoo penguins (left) check out their Aussie hosts through a perspex barrier. Picture: Jay Town Source: HWT Image Library

THESE cute little penguins have travelled across the Tasman in a strategic quest to find love.

Melbourne Aquarium's sub-antarctic penguin breeding program has been given a boost with eight new potential suitors.

And Victorians are being asked to name one of the birds - a cute six-month-old gentoo penguin.

CLICK HERE TO SEE PENGUIN PICTURE GALLERY

The newcomers also include king penguins Dottie, 2, Arthur, 1, and Hudson, 1, and their gentoo counterparts Tahi, 10, and six-month olds Woody, Lily and Mouse, who arrived in Melbourne from New Zealand on Wednesday night.

There has been plenty of singing, puffed out chests and dancing in the aquarium's popular Antarctica exhibit since, as the competition for romance heats up.


The penguins, obtained from Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World, made the trip across the Tasman Sea on a temperature-controlled air freighter.

Senior penguin keeper Susannah McGinnes said they had settled in well.

"The kings are happy, they like being in a big group. The gentoos are cheeky, very curious,'' she said.

To name the penguin go to the "What's New'' page on www.melbourneaquarium.com.au

The competition will close at 5pm on Friday, May 14.

The winner of the chosen name, to be picked by the aquarium's penguin department, will receive a life-size penguin toy, family membership for a year and a VIP tour to see the penguin they have named.

King penguins

Melbourne Aquarium has received a batch of new penguins from New Zealand. The king penguins take a dip in their new pool. Picture: Jay Town

Source: HWT Image Library

 

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Two penguin chicks hatch at SB Zoo

Desi, a Humboldt penguin recently born at the Santa Barbara Zoo, looks a bit soaked after his first swim yesterday. The chick has yet to grow its waterproof feathers, but is expected to master the art of swimming and join the main penguin exhibit in the coming weeks. Photo courtesy of Santa Barbara Zoo

Two penguin chicks hatch at SB Zoo

By ERIC LINDBERG — May 8, 2010

The cuteness factor just increased twofold at the Santa Barbara Zoo with the hatching of two Humboldt penguins.

Zoo officials said the young chicks are being housed away from the main penguin exhibit for several weeks until they settle in and learn how to swim. In fact, the older of the pair, born on March 16 and named Desi, took his first dip yesterday.
“This is the age when chicks would naturally begin to gain independence in the wild,” Sheri Horiszny, the zoo’s director of animal programs, said in a news release. “We want to make sure they grow waterproof feathers and can swim well before they have access to the big pool in the exhibit.”
The younger chick, born on April 15, is still too young to swim and is being cared for by its foster parents. The breeding couple that laid both eggs also produced the zoo’s first penguin chick last summer.
Zookeepers removed the two latest eggs after they were laid and placed them with another bonded penguin pair, which began caring for each egg as if it were their own.
“This [breeding] pair has a history of challenges with chick rearing but they are valuable to the population as a whole,” Alan Varsik, the zoo’s assistant director said. “So we make sure the eggs hatch and the chicks have every opportunity for success.”
The Humboldt penguin is listed as vulnerable in their natural habitat along the Pacific coast of South America, and the zoo is participating in a breeding program managed by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
Of the 16 birds on view at the zoo’s Crawford Family Penguin House — an exhibit that features a 5,670 cubic-foot pool — only two have a recommendation to breed under the plan, in order to improve gene diversity in the overall captive population.
Several other penguins have paired off at the zoo and spend their time together, in addition to nesting. Zookeepers will occasionally provide those couples with “dummy” eggs to keep them from producing their own, and will use those pairs as foster parents.
While zoo supporters Bob and Desiree Covington have already named one of the penguin chicks, the second chick is still unnamed and zoo officials are offering naming rights to donors. More information is available by contacting Elaine Mah Best, the zoo’s development director, at 962-5339.
Zookeepers said it should only be a few weeks to a month before the chicks have fledged and return to the main exhibit.

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Blizzard on Deception Island-Antarctica
Originally uploaded by andyteach

While summer begins for us in the northern hemisphere, in Antarctica, winter intensifies.

This Week's Pencognito!

Click here to visit Jen and all the pengies!

Two Little Hummers

Baby Penguins
updated: May 07, 2010, 6:08 AM
Source: SB Zoo. Photos by Katie Clemons and Sheri Horiszny

Two Humboldt penguins have hatched at the Santa Barbara Zoo, one on March 16 and another on April 15. Both share the same parents and both are being raised by foster penguin parents. The chicks and foster parents are now housed off-exhibit until the chicks learn to swim. Humboldt penguins are IUCN-listed as vulnerable in their native habitat along the Pacific coast of South America, from Peru to Chile.

Only two of the Zoo's 15 adult Humboldt penguins have a recommendation to breed under the Species Survival Plan of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). This one pair produced the Zoo's first penguin chick last June, which was also foster reared. The rest of the flock's genes are well represented in the overall captive population; they will not reproduce. "This pair has a history of challenges with chick rearing but they are valuable to the population as a whole," says Alan Varsik, Assistant Zoo Director. "So we make sure the eggs hatch and the chicks have every opportunity for success. We only promote breeding for that pair which we need more representation from and not those which already have a lot of relatives in the population."

After the first egg was laid the zookeepers removed it and placed it with another bonded penguin pair. They immediately began caring for it as if it was their own. The breeding pair later "double clutched" and produced a second egg, which was also cared for by foster penguin parents.

There are several other penguin pairs at the Zoo who spend all their time together and spend time in the nest cavity. Keepers sometimes give those pairs "dummy" eggs to keep them from laying their own. Those pairs are also used as foster parents.

Animal Care staff has taken over care of the chicks for the next few weeks until they are old enough to swim. The chicks will be off-exhibit, behind-the-scenes until that time. Just as wild birds "fledge" and take their first flight, penguins take their first swim.

"This is the age when chicks would naturally begin to gain independence in the wild," adds Sheri Horiszny, the Zoo's Director of Animal Programs. "We want to make sure they grow waterproof feathers and can swim well before they have access to the big pool in the exhibit."

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