New Arrival: African Penguin Chick

Lincoln Park Zoo is thrilled to announce a new hatch at Robert and Mayari Pritzker Penguin Cove. The African penguin chick came out of its egg on October 1, after incubation by first-time foster parents Liam and Maria.

As of last week, the chick weighed 1.92 kilograms, or a little over 4 pounds. Its genetic parents are Cecil and Rosie, but it is normal within penguin colonies for couples to foster one another’s eggs. Liam and Maria are not recommended for breeding according to the African Penguin Species Survival Plan®, but fostering will give them an opportunity to raise a chick anyway.

The chick is continuing to meet developmental and health milestones. Veterinary checks take place every couple of weeks for the first few months to ensure the chick is thriving, and zoo staff should be able to determine sex within the next month or two.

Next, keepers hope to see the chick come out of the nest box to explore its surroundings, show interest in water, and learn to swim. Once it has started to fledge (or leave the nest for the first time) and has displayed appropriate swimming skills, it will move into the habitat with the other members of the colony, including last year’s juveniles. Care staff hope the young penguin will be integrated into the colony after four to six weeks and become a companion to another young penguin who hatched in the summer.

African penguins lay eggs that are incubated for around 40 days. They stay in the nest for around 12 weeks and during that period are fed by both parents. Their downy feathers will molt and waterproof juvenile plumage will grow out after several months. At one or two years of age, they show their distinctive black-and-white adult plumage.

African penguins are critically endangered—their populations declined more than 80% over the last five decades. As such, they are carefully managed within Association of Zoos and Aquariums institutions to ensure genetic diversity and promote healthy populations. Lincoln Park Zoo also participates in AZA’s Saving Animals From Extinction (SAFE) African Penguin program, which focuses the collective expertise within AZA-accredited facilities to protect and recover species.

Each hatch helps scientists learn more about penguin health, behavior, and breeding to help keep them thriving both in human care environments and in the wild. This makes every chick important to the species’ future.

“We hope that when people see a penguin chick thriving here, it inspires them to care about protecting the species’ natural habitat in South Africa, where they face threats from overfishing, oil spills, and climate change,” says Hope B. McCormick Curator of Birds Nicole Finch-Mason.

The zoo is holding a naming contest for the chick, so head over to this page to vote for your choice from the options chosen by zoo staff, zoo volunteers, and zoo fans on social media by November 20. Stay tuned to find out which name will win!