Marwell Zoo celebrates arrival of threatened Humboldt penguin chick
Marwell Zoo is celebrating the arrival of a threatened Humboldt penguin chick. Keepers say the one-week-old youngster is growing well and is very responsive.
Parents Echo, 22, and Lilly, 14, two of the oldest penguins in the colony, are both involved in rearing the chick, who will not leave the nest for around eight weeks.
Marwell Zoo Senior Birds Keeper Christopher Kent, said: “We don’t yet know the sex of the chick. The penguins have been using nesting materials and guano (seabird droppings) as they would in the wild to make their nests"
Watch Humbolt penguin chick being fed by parents
Christopher continued: “Both parents will take turns to incubate the eggs for around 40 days and care for their young once hatched. The chick is fed regurgitated fish by its parents as you can see in the footage.”
Humboldt penguins are found along the coasts of Peru and Chile, and are listed as vulnerable to extinction on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.