Stock Photo of Magellanic penguin chick by Robin Riggs
The Aquarium of the Pacific’s Magellanic penguin chicks hatched in May and will make their public debut and join their parents, siblings, and other birds in the June Keyes Penguin Habitat on September 13.
Two of the chicks were born to parents Roxy and Floyd. Roxy, the mother, came to the Aquarium from Brazil. She was rescued and deemed non-releasable to the wild. She and Floyd are also parents to Skipper, Lily, Heidi, Anderson, and Gatz. Kate and Avery are also the parents of a chick this season. Kate and Avery are both rescue penguins from Brazil and are also the parents of Jayde and Fisher. This is the sixth year that penguin chicks have hatched at the Aquarium, and with the three new chicks the total number hatched is now thirteen.
Magellanic penguin chicks hatch with a downy layer of plumage that is not watertight. After about twenty-one days the Aquarium’s penguin chicks were taken to a behind-the-scenes nursery, where they lived until their down was replaced by watertight juvenile feathers, a process called fledging. During this time, the chicks also learned to take hand-fed, whole fish.
In celebration of the baby birds, the Aquarium is offering the opportunity to adopt a penguin chick through its Adopt an Animal program. Those adopting a penguin chick at the $100 level or higher before September 30, 2018, will have a chance to help name one of the female penguin chicks. The winner will go behind the scenes with the penguins.
Magellanic penguins are a temperate species native to the coasts of Argentina and Chile in South America. It takes between thirty-eight to forty-three days of incubation before a Magellanic penguin egg will hatch. The parents take turns incubating the eggs and feeding the chicks after they hatch.