Celebrating our African penguin chicks’ journey on World Penguin Day
It’s World Penguin Day, and this year, we’re highlighting some particularly special animals at the Two Oceans Aquarium: Our African penguin chicks!
As many of our Two Oceans Aquarium family know, February saw our African penguin colony welcoming two new chicks to the beach for the first time in 10 years. This has been an incredibly special experience for the Penguin Keepers and staff at the Aquarium, as well as a significant milestone for the new penguin parents. While we eagerly anticipate what the next few years of these precious penguins will bring, let’s look back on their journey to where they are today…
Monitoring the developing eggs with candling
When two of our penguin couples laid eggs in their nests, our Penguin Keepers were super excited. They were even more thrilled when candling revealed that the eggs were fertile and developing nicely! The candling process marked the beginning of our penguin chicks’ journey.
"Candling" is a process in which our Penguin Keepers shine a bright light through an egg to see the inside. This is a crucial way for our team to monitor the health of a developing penguin embryo safely.
Every week, our team used an LED flashlight in a dark room or a covered box to monitor the eggs. They would carefully remove each egg, quickly assess and document its development, and quickly return the egg to the waiting parents. The main thing that the penguin keepers looked out for was embryo growth – the bigger the penguin embryo grew inside the egg, the less light shone through the egg. As each of the eggs developed, our Penguin Keepers grew more and more excited!
As we all know, both eggs successfully hatched, and we welcomed Ember and Echo to the family!
Ember and Echo were named in honour of their critically endangered species. An ember is a tiny flame that has the potential and power to grow bigger, while an echo reverberates and impacts long after the original voice quiets. In this line of thinking, our Ember and Echo represent the future hope for the African penguin species.
Meet Ember...
It was a groundbreaking moment for our penguin team and the Two Oceans Aquarium when the first African penguin chick hatched on 10 February. Weighing about 100g, Ember entered the world.
The larger of the two chicks, Ember’s parents are Neptune and Ayah.
Meet Echo...
Believe it or not, Echo’s story actually began in the same nest as Ember's. Neptune and Ayah had laid two healthy eggs, while their neighbours, Flippy and Ayah, diligently cared for an egg that was unfortunately infertile. Typically, African penguins lay two eggs in a nest, but only one will hatch. Seeing an opportunity to make both penguin couples happy parents, our Penguin Keepers decided to let Flippy and Ayah adopt Neptune and Alan’s second egg. This meant swapping out Flippy and Ayah’s infertile egg for Neptune and Alan’s fertile one (that was housing Echo!).
Thankfully, the adoption was incredibly successful – Flippy and Ayah proved to be wonderful parents, and Echo hatched on 13 February, weighing 70g.
What phases have the chicks grown through?
Once African penguin eggs have hatched, the chicks go through various phases that our Penguin Keepers use to monitor their development. These are called the P0, P1, P2, P3, P4, and blue phases. Let’s dive in!
P0 (0 to 7 days old):
The egg has just hatched, the chick’s eyes are closed, the umbilical cord is still attached to the belly, and their plumage may be grimy from the egg’s yolk. Within the first 12 hours of hatching, it is critical for the chick and the parents to be allowed time to bond. The starting weight is typically between 40 – 100g
P1 (8 to 15 days old):
The chick starts gaining weight, growing up to 500g and still fitting perfectly into the parents’ brood pouches. They spend most of their time nestled there for warmth. Both eyes are open, and the chick is constantly calling for food as their growing bodies need fuel. At this point, our Penguin Keepers started weighing the chicks regularly to ensure they were growing steadily.
P2 (16 to 35 days old):
Some personality begins to shine through! The chick’s down feathers are more prominent, and they may be confident enough to step out of their nest. They could weigh anything between 600g to 1.5kg – with the parents feeding them every three hours, their growth rate is steep.
If the parents are not feeding the chicks enough, our Penguin Keepers may supplement their diet by hand feeding, ensuring the chicks get the best nutrition possible. This also helps the chicks get more comfortable with handling, reducing their stress for routine health checks.
P3 (36 to 45 days):
In appearance, a P3 penguin looks quite similar to P2 but weighs up to 1.8kg. The bigger the chick grows, the more food is needed and, therefore, the more the parents need to eat and regurgitate for their babies. In the wild, the parents would leave their chick alone in the nest to forage – if two or more chicks hang out together, this grouping is called a creche.
P4 (older than 46 days):
This is an interesting phase for a baby African penguin – they are beginning to lose their down feathers in place of their “blue” plumage. At this point, they can weigh up to 3kg, are very exploratory, and may even start learning to swim!
Blue:
This is the final stage before adulthood. Known as blues, the chicks have grown out of their down feathers. Instead, they have blueish-black, waterproof feathers. In this “teenage” phase, the penguins begin to develop identifiable markings – the black spots on their chest are unique, just like the human fingerprint.
When do we know a penguin is officially an adult? When penguins moult from the blue phase to adulthood, they develop the signature dark line across their chests, and the sweat glands around their eyes change colour from dark grey to light pink.
Our new African penguin chicks are shining a light for the future
In the early 1900s, African penguins lived in abundance on the South African and Namibian coastlines, numbering up to three million individuals. Currently, about 8 750 wild breeding pairs remain, and it is predicted that these iconic seabirds will be functionally extinct by 2035. To make matters worse, they were recently “uplisted” to Critically Endangered status on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List of Threatened Species.
This is one of the reasons why the new additions to our penguin family are so important – they are the crucial ambassadors for their species! As messengers for the plight of the African penguin, these chicks can be the voice for their future protection. Visitors to the Aquarium can see a healthy African penguin population and learn about their importance to ocean biodiversity, and the data generated from the colony will aid in international research efforts to save this species from extinction.
Not only is the African penguin the only penguin species on the African continent, but it is also one of Cape Town’s most recognisable species, a huge ecotourism drawcard, and an integral part of our unique ocean ecosystem.
This World Penguin Day, we are not only celebrating Ember and Echo’s future, but we are also working towards protecting the future of their species. Let’s work together to save the African penguin!
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