Posted August 15, 2019 in News
Our hand-reared chicks have joined our adult colony at Inca Trail!
Since the chicks were a few weeks old the Animal Care Team have been busy hand-rearing the two penguin chicks, now nearly fully grown they have been mixed with the rest of the Humboldt penguin colony at the Inca Trail!
The parents of the chicks, Sid & Dotty and OJ & Diego, were caring for the chicks themselves however keepers noticed that they were starting to lose weight. After monitoring and weighing them daily with no improvement, the difficult decision was made to hand rear them.
Whilst in the care of our keepers, the chicks gained weight, enjoyed their first dip in the training pool and began the transition from fluffy chick to water-proofed sub-adult!
They can now be seen enjoying the beach and swimming amongst our adults and it won’t be long before they lose their grey colouring and gain their black and white feathers!
As you can see from our short video our penguin chicks are doing really well and have been having great fun swimming in their new large pool!
Stop by Inca Trail and see if you can spot our two youngsters as they gain more confidence within the group!
Humboldt penguins are listed as Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List so these chicks are really important for their species.
