African Penguin Chick Hatches At Lincoln Park Zoo

CHICAGO, IL — An African penguin chick hatched at the Lincoln Park Zoo after a 38-day incubation period, the zoo announced. The chick will be the first-ever endangered African penguin chick hatched and reared at the Robert and Mayari Pritzker Penguin Cove, the zoo said. The exhibit debuted in the fall of 2016, and the new chick hatched Feb. 10.

The chick is part of the African Penguin Species Survival Plan, a population management program headed by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Veterinary staff conducted a wellness exam on the chick and deemed the baby healthy, the Lincoln Park Zoo said.

The chick's parents, Robben and Preston, are doing a good job of taking care of their baby, the zoo said. Hope B. McCormick, the curator of Birds Sunny Nelson, said the parents are "naturals."

“Our keepers are constantly monitoring both the parents and the chick to ensure that the parents are meeting the chick’s needs as it reaches developmental milestones,” Nelson stated on the zoo's website. “Both Robben and Preston are performing parental duties as expected, sharing brooding and feeding responsibilities.”

Lincoln Park Zoo works with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Saving Animals From Extinction program. The African penguin is a SAFE priority species due to its decreasing population in the wild, which has gone from 141,000 breeding pairs in 1956 to only about 25,000 today.

Image/video via YouTube, Lincoln Park Zoo