Time to Come Out

After a successful mating season for the gentoo penguins at Edinburgh Zoo, staff and visitors have seen the first chicks coming out of their shells this May.

During the mating season large doughnut-shaped nesting rings and pebbles were placed in the enclosures by keepers. Within hours, the amusing courtship displays, whereby males presented females with a love token of a pebble, began.

Roslin Talbot, Head Keeper at Edinburgh Zoo said, “Edinburgh Zoo is one of the most successful captive breeding sites for gentoo penguins in Europe. Once the eggs are laid, we briefly remove them from the nest and write a 1 or 2 on it to know which was the first egg and which was the second. We keep careful records of every egg laid and then the chicks once they hatch.

This year, 108 eggs were laid and so far over 40 chicks have hatched. Last year 42 chicks went on to adulthood and the keepers are anticipating even more this year.

Those tuning into the ever-popular penguin cam at www.edinburghzoo.org.uk glimpse this year’s emerging chicks and check on their progress. Once the chicks hatch, they remain in the nest for a couple of months and are fed by both parents. The adult will hold onto partly digested food to feed its chick. When hungry, the young simply pecks on its parent’s beak. This causes the parent to ‘cough up’ the food they have been storing.

In the wild, and while their parents hunt for food, month old chicks form nursery groups known as creches. Once the chicks have grown adult feathers at about three months, the parents stop providing them food and they start to fend for themselves.

As an adult, the gentoo penguin is easily recognised by the wide white-stripe extending like a bonnet across the top of its head and bright orange beak. Gentoo penguins are the fastest underwater swimming bird.

Three king penguins from a Christian Salvesen expedition in January 1914 were the first penguins ever seen outside their South Atlantic homeland. There are three different kinds of penguin at the Zoo today. Currently there are 19 rockhoppers, 11 king penguins and 171 gentoo penguins. The daily penguin parade is still one of the most popular attractions at the Zoo. The parade began in 1951 when a keeper accidentally left the gate open. The penguins went for a short walk and then returned to their enclosure.