BioPark welcomes penguin chick; second baby penguin to hatch at zoo since 2019

Laura McChesney and her husband Craig McChesney were watching penguins swim at the ABQ BioPark Zoo when they spotted two gentoo penguins giving some love to their fluffy-feathered baby.

“It’s so cute,” Laura McChesney told her husband. “It’s so little.”

The couple recently visited from Santa Fe to look at the zoo’s recent additions, which includes a baby hippo named Maisy and the gentoo penguin chick who hatched on Nov. 3, according to a Nov. 17 BioPark news release.

“It’s cool when there (are) new things to see,” Craig McChesney said.

The penguin chick needed help hatching out of the egg, but was “strong and alert” when they got out, ABQ BioPark birds curator Karen Waterfall said in a release.

“The parents are doing good, and we look forward to watching the chick grow and meet their milestones,” Waterfall said.

The recent arrival is the second penguin chick to hatch at the BioPark since the zoo’s Penguin Chill opened in 2019. In 2022, the chick’s parents, Digit and Killian, welcomed Ike into the world, according to BioPark.

The chick’s gender has yet to be determined “as it is difficult to discern at this age,” the news release states. When they are a few months old, a blood sample will be collected to know for sure, according to the zoo.

Over the past couple of weeks, the chick has spent most of its time in the nest being tended to by their parents.

Chicks cannot regulate their own body temperature well, so Digit and Killian have been taking turns sitting over the chick to guard it and keep it warm, which is also known as brooding, the release states.

“They’re really a tight pair, and we knew they were going to be good parents,” according to BioPark. “Digit, the mom, is very good. She almost doesn’t want dad to do any parental care, but we do see them switch. It’s pretty neat to see. We’ll watch one get out of the nest and the other one will come and scoot the chick underneath them.”

A gentoo penguin is recognized by their face and head, which are black with a white patch above the eyes. The bill is yellow or orange with a thin strip of black along the top of the upper mandible. Eyes are brown with a white eye ring. Their tail feathers are longer than other penguin species, according to Penguins International.

The parent who is not brooding goes out to find food for themselves and the chick. The parents feed their chicks by regurgitating partially digested food into their mouths, according to BioPark.

The chick may be hard to find as the parents are likely covering them. But in about a month, the chick will start wandering around, the release states.

“Once it reaches this stage,” Waterfall said, “we’ll move the family inside a behind-the-scenes space for a bit to continue to get the chick used to us and used to feeding from us.”

Also during this time, according to the zoo, the chick will be able to practice swimming in a smaller pool.

“By then, it will be fully fledged with waterproof feathers and look pretty similar to the other gentoo penguins, only smaller,” the release states.