Originally posted at 11:31 a.m. June 17, 2014. Edited to add video.
The Aquarium of the Pacific is announcing the birth of two Magellanic penguin chicks. One of the chicks is less than a week old.
The chicks were born to first-time parents Kate and Avery and Patsy and Noodles, residents of the Aquarium’s June Keyes Penguin Habitat.
The penguin chicks are currently being cared for by their parents in their nest burrows. The Aquarium expects the chicks to be viewable by the public when they leave their nests and join the other birds in the main areas of the penguin habitat later this summer.
According to the Aquarium:
Magellanic Penguins are a temperate species native to the coasts of Argentina and Chile in South America. It takes between 38 and 43 days of incubation before a Magellanic Penguin egg will hatch.
The chicks hatch with their eyes closed, and they are able to open their eyes about a week later. Magellanic Penguin parents take turns incubating the eggs on the nest and feeding and raising the chicks after they hatch.
The chicks fledge, or replace their downy newborn feathers with water-tight sub-adult feathers, after about ninety days. The Aquarium’s penguin chicks are expected to fledge in late August or early September and join the other penguins in the viewable parts of the exhibit in the June Keyes Penguin Habitat.
It is also around that time that we may know if they are male or female.
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