A clutch of four Humboldt Penguin
chicks hatched at the United Kingdom’s Chester
Zoo have been named after characters from the British science fiction TV
show Doctor Who, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this
year.
The first of the chicks,
which hatched on April 17, was named Doctor. The next three chicks are named Tardis,
Davros and Dalek.
Photo Credit: Chester Zoo
Zoo keepers are providing intense daily care to the four chicks, including daily
weigh-ins to make sure the chicks are getting enough food from their parents. Keeper
Karen Neech said, “With extra mouths to feed a lot more food is required, so
it’s a busy time for both us and the adult Penguins. We provide the parents with fish and they
then turn it into a high-protein soup, which they then regurgitate to feed to
the chicks.”
Humboldt
Penguins are native to the coastal areas of Peru and Chile and are named for
the chilly Humboldt ocean current in which they swim. They are listed as
Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Read and see more below the fold.
The
new arrivals mean the zoo now has a colony of more than 40 Humboldt Penguins. Each pair lays two eggs and will incubate
them for 40 days up to hatching. Both parents are then involved in rearing the young.
At
around eight weeks the chicks will leave the nest and learn how to swim in the
zoo’s ‘baby pool’ before joining their parents in the main pool.
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