There must be something in the water at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden that’s making the penguins feel ~romantic~ because they just welcomed a new King Penguin chick who hatched June 30.
In January, the zoo’s first babies of the new year were two Little Blue Penguin hatchlings.
This is the first King Penguin born at the zoo since 2012 and the fifth overall.
The sex of the King Penguin baby is not yet known, but it weighed 214 grams yesterday and is in the currently-closed Wings of Wonder habitat. If things go as expected, the chick will remain with the penguin colony with parents Larry and Coretta for three weeks and then be hand-reared “in an area with temperature optimized for a chick with fluffy down,” says the zoo.
When it is fully grown and weaned, it will return to the colony.
The zoo says female King Penguins lay one egg and both the female and the male incubate it for 54 days. They do not mate for life and only lay two chicks about every three years. Apparently, it takes them 14 to 16 months to “fledge” a single baby chick — or get it ready to leave the nest.
“The Zoo’s first birth of the year, in early January, was a little blue penguin, and we’re gearing up to open two new penguin habitats later this summer,” said Cincinnati Zoo director Thane Maynard in a release. “Since both of the species getting new habitats are warm weather penguins, visitors will be able to see them swimming in Roo Valley and African Penguin Point next month.”
The Cincinnati Zoo is located at 3400 Vine St., Avondale and has reopened to the public. Timed entry tickets are available online at cincinnatizoo.org.
This article appears in The Summer Guide.