Once the chick externally pipped (meaning it began to peck its way out of the egg), it took almost 24 hours for it to entirely emerge from its shell. The Animal Health Department did a quick exam and weight measurement to ensure its health before returning it to its parents. Then the entire family was moved to an off-exhibit area where the chick could grow up without the interference of other curious couples.

Penguin chick on day 8

We were delighted that the parents did all of the rearing on their own, and continued to weigh the chick periodically to track its progression. At just under a month old, it started venturing out of the nest box. Shortly thereafter, it received a full physical including blood work to determine gender, and…it’s a BOY!!

When they first hatch, penguin chicks are covered in downy feathers, have soft feet, and their wings are flexible. In the last two months, our little guy has lost his down and replaced it with juvenile feathers that are gray and white in color. He now has a unique spot pattern on his belly that will remain the same for the rest of his life. Once his wings had hardened and his feet were rough, he was ready to start swimming. On day 57, we started introducing him to the water in a kiddie pool for a few minutes at a time, gradually increasing the duration.

Penguin chick on day 60

Once he was comfortable swimming, we introduced him to his new exhibit and the rest of the colony slowly, over a period of days. In just 72 days, he has grown from 70 grams to 3 kg, close to full adult size. He is doing very well and we are excited to see how his personality develops as he matures.

Come by to welcome him to his new home, and be sure to enter the Name the Penguin Chick Contest before April 30. Academy staff will select the top three names based on originality and connection to the Academy’s mission to explore, explain and sustain life, including the African Penguin SSP program. The final three names will be put out to public vote, and the winning name will be announced during a naming ceremony in May.

As part of the Species Survival Plan we have tracked the number of offspring Pierre has had and which zoos and aquariums most of them have gone off to. In his 30 years, Pierre has had several mates with whom he has produced 16 chicks. His lineage is now represented worldwide, with some of his chicks living as far away as Ohio, Idaho, and even Japan! These offspring have gone on to produce approximately 26 grand chicks and 4 great grand chicks! He is not currently recommended to breed since he is genetically very well represented.

Living to such an old age for an African Penguin means that Pierre has had some health obstacles that penguins in the wild, which have shorter life spans, would not have. He was the first penguin to wear a wetsuit to help him get through a difficult molt, a story immortalized in the children’s book Pierre the Penguin, written by Jean Marzollo and illustrated by Laura Regan. He even has his own Wikipedia page. Pierre has had allergies almost all of his life and gets allergy medication daily to keep him from excessive coughing. Every day, a biologist hides his allergy medication inside a fish, which he gets during one of our daily penguin feedings. Like humans, penguins can develop cataracts with age. Pierre had surgery on both of his eyes to remove cataracts and help improve his vision.

Pierre is doing very well overall and we are excited to see what future adventures he has in store for us. Pierre is banded on the right wing with a solid blue band, so keep an eye out for him when you come to visit or are watching on our web cam!

Pierre the Penguin

This Saturday is African Penguin Awareness Day. SANCCOB, an organization that has been working in-situ with African penguins for 30 years, has provided materials for educators and kids to use this weekend. The African penguin population has plummeted 90% in the last 100 years and the species is currently listed as endangered by IUCN.

Click here to download posters and other educational materials.

Learn more about SANCCOB here.

Right around this time Adelie penguins migrate an average of about 8,100 miles during the year as they follow the sun from their breeding colonies to winter foraging grounds (remember they’re in the Southern hemisphere) and back again. Here at the Academy we display a different species of penguin, the African penguin, which doesn’t migrate but we love taking this opportunity to not only express our admiration for these lovable birds but also to consider our responsibility towards them. As of today eleven of the world’s eighteen penguin species are considered to be either vulnerable or endangered. This means that, if no measures are taken to protect them, there is a real risk that population levels for these species will not be sustainable and extinction will follow. This looms very large on our minds here because one unfortunate member of the endangered species list is the African penguin.

Penguins are vulnerable to overfishing of their food sources, climate change, pollution (especially oil spills), introduced predators, and human encroachment on  their breeding grounds. It is only by protecting their environment that we can ensure the future of penguins, which are now understood to be an important indicator of the health of our planet.  We need to recognize that the fundamental changes affecting penguins will one day, without a doubt, affect our own lives.

So let’s all take a moment on Wednesday to appreciate how fascinating this family of flightless birds is and why we need to preserve their natural environment. Some ideas? Come visit our colony here at the Academy and learn something new about penguin biology or behavior. Wear black and white or even a tuxedo in honor of countershading–dark backs and white undersides. Watch a movie or read a book about penguins. Order some wine from Penguin Bay Winery. Even better make a donation to an organization like SANCCOB which does a tremendous amount of work to conserve and protect wild African penguins.

Most importantly have a great World Penguin Day and do something, anything, penguinish!

Sinclair was hatched at New England Aquarium on March 28th, 1991. We received Sinclair as part of our commitment to cooperatively manage this endangered species with other zoos and aquariums accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).  African penguins are managed under what’s referred to as a Green-level Species Survival Plan (SSP). This means that the population of the species in captivity is considered sustainable for the long-term which, in more detail, means that we can maintain 90% genetic diversity within the group for at least 100 years. Breeding is prioritized to maintain or increase gene diversity largely through considerations of mean kinship, avoidance of inbreeding, and the degree of uncertainty within an individual’s pedigree.

As a general rule any new animals (whether fish or snakes or penguins, etc…) brought into the Academy are subject to a 30 day quarantine period where they are isolated from the rest of the collection to avoid transmission of any pathogens they might be carrying. Sinclair did wonderfully down in what has previously been referred to as “the Love-shack” with her recommended mate Agulhas (green-banded male). The two almost immediately started sharing their nest-box and were seen bowing and shaking their heads to each-other, all good signs for the formation of a strong pair bond.

So far Sinclair has been doing well on exhibit and is sporting a green wing-band on her left wing to match Agulhas. She has been holding her own with the rest of the colony yet is very mellow to work with. It was a lovely surprise to find that she has not been at all aggressive with the biologists who’ve been caring for her. We haven’t seen her in Agulhas’s nest yet but the two have been in close proximity and have even been braying together.

Hopefully the two will have a long and prolific future!

We were also very successful and brought back 31 purple urchins Strongylocentrotus purpuratus and 50 ochre stars Pisaster ochraceus for the exhibit. Below is a picture of Tessa using a spoon to gently remove urchins:

Tide-pools are areas of the coastline that are covered and then uncovered with seawater each day by the high and low tides. Exploring tide-pools is a great way to see an incredible variety of organisms but it’s important to remember that these are very delicate ecosystems which can be easily damaged by human activity. When tide-pooling it’s imperative to look but not touch in order to avoid disturbing marine life. Please note that the Academy collects only under a Department of Fish and Game permit; we also have the expertise to safely remove, transport, house and care for any animals we gather.

Below is a picture of Tessa and Brooke with some of the ochre stars they collected:

Note the sea palms Postelsia palmaeformis growing on the rocks in the background. This is a type of kelp and is one of only a few types of algae that’s able to survive and remain erect out of water. We were thrilled to see this protected species thriving in its native habitat.

It was a long, exciting day that was well worth the effort. Aside from adding a dynamic visual element to the penguin display the invertebrates we gathered have a functional role. The sea stars will consume fish that are dropped by penguins during feeding time and the urchins are great algae eaters. In addition to what we collected, that same week we added 15 farm-raised red abalone Haliotis rufescens. The abalone need larger types of algae than what grows naturally in the exhibit so during weekly maintenance dives (usually performed on Thursday afternoons) check out the under-water camera and you may see each one of them being offered a piece of macroalgae by hand.

All in all, quite an exciting time on the invertebrate front!

Here are some close-ups of the two from this week:

In other news Pierre (blue-banded male) is 28 years old and is our oldest penguin. He’s also our most famous. If you haven’t read it yet there’s a great book called Pierre the Penguin which chronicles Pierre’s adventure wearing the first custom fit wet-suit for a penguin. A few years ago Pierre did not undergo his yearly molt as usual. As a result his feathers continued to wear down and, eventually, he became bald over the majority of his body. He was cold, shivering, wasn’t able to swim comfortably and was being picked on by the other penguins. His wetsuit improved the quality of his life tremendously and he was eventually able to re-grow his own feathers. He’s molted successfully since then and is currently about 2/3rds of the way finished with the process for this year.

He was not amenable to having his picture taken so here’s one of him trying to get some privacy in his nest:

Our African monitor is aware!

Exciting new research by Daniel Ksepka and Daniel Thomas shows that at least three species of penguins have independently colonized Africa in the past. Today only one of those species, Spheniscus demersus, survives. Unfortunately, the future does not look very bright for them either making a day like this more important than ever. Population levels for this species in the wild have plummeted by over 90% in the past hundred years and they are now considered to be endangered, meaning that there is indeed a real risk they won’t be around for much longer in the wild at all.

Devoting a day to them should mean devoting ourselves to learning as much as we can about these charismatic critters and pledging to treat our planet as best we can. Penguins are generally considered to be a good sentinel species for the ocean environment. This means that their relative well-being is a good indicator of the health of the overall ecosystem; the challenges facing penguins are not really unique to penguins. They suffer from over-arching problems like over-fishing, climate change, habitat loss, introduced predators and, particularly for the African penguin, oil pollution.  To quote the eminent Lloyd Spencer Davis, “Saving penguins is not really about saving penguins; it is about saving every living thing–all of us.”

Come celebrate with the Academy’s own penguin colony and make your own African penguin craft in the Naturalist Center on October 7th and 8th:

There will also be a Specimen Spotlight on African penguins in front of the Project Lab at 11:30 am on Friday, October 7th.

Long live the African penguin!

Pierre’s appearance is also worth noticing. He’s been eating significantly more than usual over the past couple of weeks and has really been bulking up. Over the past few days his feathers have started loosening up and we just removed his wing-band this afternoon. Keep an eye on the penguin cams over the next few weeks to follow his progress through the molting process.

It’s a slow, arduous process that each penguin must go through about once per year and takes weeks to complete. New feathers are manufactured beneath the skin and essentially push the old feathers out as they grow in. Although there tends to be a pattern in which the molt proceeds penguins often sport some pretty unique feather-do’s, many of which are quite amusing.

Adasha (our beige-banded female) is shown below finishing up her molt last week, eschewing the common disheveled look in favor of a very trendy feather shawl:

Almost all of our birds have now gone through their molt for the year. Dyer (blue/white banded male) and Grendel (yellow male) are just starting to swell up and have had their bands removed. Out with the old and in with the new!