Lincoln Park Zoo Reveals African Penguin Chick's Name, Gender

CHICAGO, IL — The Lincoln Park Zoo announced the gender and name of its newest penguin chick on Wednesday. To get the chick's gender, the zoo had to send a blood sample to a lab for genetic analysis. On World Penguin Day, the zoo announced the chick is a boy and his name is Oliver.

Oliver 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 chick hatched Feb. 10.

Oliver is part of the African Penguin Species Survival Plan, a population management program headed by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Oliver'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 said.

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, the program said.

Image via Lincoln Park Zoo