After a couple of days spent emerging from its shell, a new chick has joined the Oregon Zoo’s Humboldt penguin colony. The chick ios healthy and active, and foster parents Blue and Esquela are taking great care of her.
The egg was produced by a different penguin pair, Mojito and Bonita, who are genetically important for the Humboldt population but less skilled at raising chicks. The young penguin began “pipping” (tapping her beak against the inside of the shell) on March 26, and emerged on March 29. The fluffy, pint-sized new arrival — which is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand — is the first Humboldt chick to hatch at the Oregon Zoo since 2020.
She will be nearly as tall as her parents by the summer, but easy to tell apart by her plumage, young Humboldts are greyish-brown all over and don’t develop their distinctive black-and-white tuxedo markings for a couple years.
Once she’s waddling and swimming on her own, the chick will begin to explore the rugged terrain of the zoo’s Penguinarium which simulates the endangered birds’ native habitat along the rocky coast of Chile and Peru. Of the world’s 17 penguin species, Humboldts are among the most at risk. Their population is estimated at 32,000 adult birds and declining.