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Zoo News
That's Neat, Check Out Those Happy Feet!
4 June 2010 - After a successful mating season for the gentoo penguins at Edinburgh Zoo, the first chicks, which hatched from 7 May onwards, are now growing fast and taking their first steps.
During the mating season large doughnut-shaped nesting rings and pebbles were placed in the enclosures by keepers. Within hours, the amusing courtship displays, whereby males presented females with a love token of a pebble, began.
Over 123 eggs were laid and so far 52 have hatched with 45 surviving. With the ages of chicks varying, the older ones are now becoming more independent and adventurous while others are still to hatch.
Roslin Talbot, Head Keeper of Penguins at Edinburgh Zoo said: “Penguin chicks are adorable and are really just small, unstable versions of their parents with more fluffy juvenile feathers. Over the coming weeks, as the younger chicks catch up with the older ones, they’ll be lots of amusing waddling and exploring the enclosure further away from mum and dad. Visitors coming to see the penguins can’t stop themselves from saying ‘ah aren’t they cute’.”
Last year 42 chicks went on to adulthood. At the moment and until they are three months old, the chicks are fed by both parents. The adult will hold onto partly digested food to feed its chick. When hungry, the young simply pecks on its parent’s beak. This causes the parent to ‘cough up’ the food they have been storing.
Once the chicks have grown adult feathers at about three months, the parents stop providing them with food and they start to fend for themselves. As an adult, the gentoo penguin is easily recognised by the wide white-stripe extending like a bonnet across the top of its head and bright orange beak. Gentoo penguins are the fastest underwater swimming bird.
Those tuning into the ever-popular Edinburgh Zoo penguin cam can see the baby penguin antics for themselves live online.
Editor’s Notes
- Launched in June last year, the Edinburgh Zoo penguin cam is one of the most popular items on the Zoo’s website.
- It was the arrival of three king penguins from a Christian Salvesen expedition in January 1914, and the subsequent first successful hatching of a king penguin chick in 1919, that made the Zoo ‘ famous all over the world’, for these were the first penguins ever seen outside their South Atlantic homeland. This is why Edinburgh Zoo has a penguin as its logo.
- The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland donated over £45,000 since 2004 to finance a project protecting penguin nest sites in the Falkland Islands. With more visitors than ever, this penguin-breeding site is under increasing pressure of disturbance.
- There are three different kinds of penguin at the Zoo. Currently there are 19 rockhoppers, 11 king penguins and 171 adult gentoo penguins. The daily penguin parade (at 2.15pm) is still one of the most popular attractions at the Zoo. The parade began in 1951 when a keeper accidentally left the gate open. The penguins went for a short walk and then returned to their enclosure.
- Edinburgh Zoo is owned by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, a registered charity, charity no SC004064.
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