At the end of December, the Cincinnati Zoo welcomed two fuzzy new friends: a pair of little blue penguin chicks. They were born on Dec. 28 and 31 and two more eggs, currently in the incubator, are expected to hatch soon. The zoo is home to the largest colony of this smallest penguin species.
“We have more than 30 birds in the colony,” said Cincinnati Zoo senior aviculturist Cody Sowers in a press release. “Some of the more experienced pairs do fine sitting on their eggs and caring for young chicks, but the eggs that we ended up incubating were from first-time pairs that didn’t seem sure about what to do. That’s where we come in.”
The zoo is currently caring for the tiny, kind-of-weird-looking flightless birds by feeding them a mix of herring, krill and Pedialyte five times a day. One chick has already opened its eyes and both should be introduced to the adult penguin colony when they are about six weeks old.
Starting tomorrow, the zoo will be taking name suggestions for both birds on its Facebook page.
And, coincidentally, it also happens to be Penguin Days at the zoo (we’re assuming the zoo and the penguins didn’t plan this, unless the penguins are also little PR divas) where visitors get half-price admission through March 8 and can watch penguin parades Friday-Monday (Note: Penguins only parade if it’s below 50 degrees).
The Cincinnati Zoo is located at 3400 Vine St., Avondale. More info: cincinnatizoo.org.
This article appears in Jan 2-8, 2019.
