2007 Penguin Chicks

For the first time since 2004, we were recommended to breed penguins. We had four birds that were recommended to breed and lucky for us, they were already paired correctly. The pairs were Stony and Calvin and Loverboy and Calfred. Loverboy got his name because he used to follow me around all the time. He finally got it right and realized he was a penguin. Calfred and Loverboy laid eggs in January and Stony and Calvin laid eggs in February. Stony and Calvin’s eggs got flooded in early March and they abandoned them. We moved them to the incubator and attempted to dry them out but our hopes were not high that they had survived. We fostered those eggs to another pair to let Stony and Calvin begin to reclutch earlier. If the first set of eggs hatched, we would just pull any new ones that they laid. Just as we had thought, the eggs did not hatch and neither did Loverboy and Calfred’s.

Both pairs reclutched in early April. The bird valley relief keeper, Kelly, being aware of the first instance of flooding, kept a very close eye on the eggs one Sunday when we had a very heavy rainstorm. Despite checking very often, Calvin and Stony’s eggs were flooded again. Kelly pulled them to the incubator again and they stayed there for two days while some tree work was also being done near the exhibit. They were returned to the nest after two days in the incubator and we kept our fingers crossed. Loverboy and Calfred’s eggs were not flooded but were also put in the incubator for the tree work.

On May 11th, the first of the flooded eggs hatched much to our surprise. We named this chick “Noah”. “Noah’s” sibling hatched on May 13th and we named him “Gilligan”. Loverboy and Calfred hatched only one of their two eggs on May 15th. Calfred was a first time mom and a little nervous and she would often step on her chick so we named him “Pancake”.

Another interesting part to this story is that Stony and Calvin are Calfred’s biological parents. That makes them parents and grandparents all in the same week!

The penguins all recently moved to Lower Duck Pond while their exhibit receives some upgrades including new rock burrows and a slide in the pool for enrichment. During the move, the parents temporarily abandoned their chicks and were also being harassed by some of the other penguins. Pancake lived up to his name and continued to get flattened while the parents fought off the intruders. The first night in the new exhibit, Pancake got really cold and lost some weight so he was taken to the hospital where he was warmed up with a hairdryer and took a nap next to a seal. What a nightmare that must have caused! He was given a meal to boost him up and then he was returned to his parents. Again we crossed our fingers that his parents would take care of him. His parents came running when they saw him and immediately began to take care of him. We built a small fence to separate the families from the rest of the colony so they could take care of the chicks in peace. So far, it has worked out well and the parents take turns to go out to swim for a while. As of the beginning of June, all of the chicks are doing well and weigh in at over a kilogram (about two pounds) and they were only eighty grams (about three ounces) when they were hatched just three weeks ago.