Four Penguin Chicks Hatch at Birdland
Birdland Celebrates Most Successful Humboldt Penguin Breeding Season in Years With An 83% Hatch Rate!
It has been an exciting time for the team at Birdland Park and Gardens as all three of the established breeding pairs of Humbolt penguins laid two eggs each, resulting in the largest clutch since 2017.
The breeding pairs – Pablo and Sunny, Broady and Kat, and Big Mac and Cookie – are all first-time parents, making the year’s success particularly significant.
Birdlandvery happy with an 83% hatch rate!
Although one of their eggs was infertile, Big Mac and Cookie had a chick hatch on 26 May, weighing just 61g (2oz), making it one of the smallest chicks to be recorded at Birdland. Mum and dad are rearing and doing a great job, with the chick up to 298 grams when last weighed.
Kat and Broady’s older chick which is thriving in the nest with them is a whopping 1.7kg at 26 days old.
As a species native to the coastal regions of Peru and Chile, Humboldt penguins naturally nest in burrows or sheltered rocky crevices.
At Birdland, the birds are provided with custom nest boxes designed to replicate these conditions. The penguins instinctively gather natural materials to line their nests and both parents share the 38-day incubation period.
In a strategic move informed by experience, one egg from each pair was removed for artificial incubation to reduce the pressure on inexperienced parents.
A chick left with its parents last year did not survive beyond three weeks, prompting the change in approach.
Hand-rearing the chicks involves round-the-clock care, with keepers feeding a custom blend of fish, squid, vitamins and salt paste via pipette.
The feeding regime adjusts as chicks grow, with diet and frequency tailored to their development.
The two hand reared chicks doing well. The oldest is now 42 days and weighs 1.8 kg and on solids only and on two feeds a day. The other is now 787g and on 3 feeds a day, getting 15% of its morning weight at each feed and on 50:50 formula and solid and is 24 days old.
Humboldt penguins are listed as vulnerable in the wild, facing threats from habitat loss, climate change, overfishing and pollution.
Birdland is actively involved in conservation efforts, having funded a population census in Peru last year in partnership with Penguins International.
Plans are underway to send a staff member to join a volunteer team monitoring wild nest sites later this year.
Birdland’s Humboldt penguins are part of the EAZA Ex-situ Programme (EEP), contributing to the international effort to secure the species’ future.
