Endangered African Penguin Chick Debuts At National Aviary

PITTSBURGH, PA — A month after its birth, an endangered African Penguin chick has made its public debut at the National Aviary. Visitors will be able to see the chick when it makes appearances in the Avian Care Center twice a day; the viewing area is set up with social distancing protocols in place.

The chick is the first for parents Buddy and Holly, and the eleventh of this endangered species to hatch at the aviary.

The size of a golf ball when it hatched on Jan. 3, the chick is growing quickly and is now able to eat whole fish. Penguin chicks can gain about 10 percent of their body weight each day.

Thanks to a donor, names for the chick have already been chosen but the name will not be revealed until the sex is known. Once the chick’s juvenile feathers begin to grow in, a DNA test will determine the sex. Until then, the public can give their best guess if the chick is male or female when they visit the National Aviary, or online at aviary.org.

The National Aviary’s Penguin Point habitat is home to a colony of African Penguins. With only about 13,000 pairs remaining in the wild in South Africa, African Penguins are an endangered species, and have experienced a steep decline in recent years. According to the aviary, their decline is largely a result of human disturbance: over-fishing, human activity at nesting sites and disasters like oil spills put pressure on African Penguin populations.