Oregon Zoo Welcomes Two Palm-Sized Endangered Humboldt Penguin Chicks

Two tiny Humboldt penguin chicks, nicknamed the Peruvian penguin or Peruvian banded penguin due to their habitat, hatched their eggs in March after they were laid earlier this winter.

2 New Penguin Babies At Oregon Zoo

Zookeepers have been keeping an eye on two Humboldt penguin eggs belonging to 2 separate couples since they were laid.

The tiny chicks- small enough to fit in the palm of your hand- are the 194th and 195th Humboldt chicks to hatch at the Oregon Zoo since the 1980s, when it began breeding the threatened species.

Humboldt penguins, with an estimated global population of 12,000 breeding pairs, are classified as “vulnerable” and are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Humboldts are among the most at risk of the world’s 17 penguin species.

Humboldt penguins usually hatch 40 days after eggs are laid, and take two or three days from when they pip to when they’re fully hatched.

The first chick began “pipping” (when a chick’s beak breaks through the membrane of its shell) on Monday, March 9, and emerged early the next day.

The second chick followed a week later, pipping on March 17 and hatching on March 19.

Zookeeper  Nicole LaGreco, who oversees the penguin area at the zoo, said: “Both sets of parents nested wonderfully, and the chicks hatched right on schedule.”

Despite being just a week apart, the tiny penguins won’t get to know each other until they’re a little older, because they’ll stay in the nest with their parents until they’re around 3 months old.

After that, the zoo expects them to spend a lot of time together as they venture into the rugged terrain of the zoo’s Penguinarium, which simulates the species’ native habitat along the rocky coasts of Chile and Peru.

But for now, the pair will be keeping cozy inside their nest boxes, growing strong on a diet of regurgitated “fish smoothie” provided by their devoted parents as they grow to be nearly as tall as their parents by the summer.

Young Humboldts are grayish-brown all over and don’t develop their distinctive black-and-white tuxedo markings for a couple of years.