Call it peng-win.
SeaWorld San Diego recently welcomed an emperor penguin chick to its family, marking the first breeding of the threatened species in the Western Hemisphere in nearly 13 years.
“This is the most exciting thing we’ll do all year, potentially all decade,” Justin Brackett, SeaWorld’s curator of birds, said Wednesday.
The unnamed female was born last month and has made great strides in her health despite having an arduous hatching experience.
Staff detected movement and noise coming from the egg on September 7, but noted that it had not emerged from the casing.
A heartbreaking video shared by SeaWorld shows the young calf struggling and unable to free itself from the shell, only managing to break through the inner membrane.
The first emperor penguin is born in the Western Hemisphere in almost 13 years. Facebook/SeaWorld San Diego
Initially, the SeaWorld team made a hole in the egg, but eventually had to hatch it completely after five days, when it became clear that the hatchling couldn’t do it on its own.
The team later determined that the chick had a malformation in its beak that prevented it from hatching, Brackett said.
Despite the hiccups, the calf has made impeccable progress and is gaining a healthy rate of 5% to 10% of its body weight per day, likely thanks to the steady diet of fish and “fish shakes” it gobbles up.
The unnamed female chick hatched last month and has made great strides in her health despite having an arduous hatching experience. Facebook/SeaWorld San Diego
While the new emperor penguin chick will be an adorable addition to the SeaWorld family, its birth marks great strides for the species, which is listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act due to the loss of sea ice. Antarctica and sea level rise caused by climate change.
Shrinking ice caps have caused emperor penguin populations to plummet: Antarctic natives rely on sea ice as habitat to breed, raise chicks and molt, and newborn chicks lack the necessary waterproof feathers. to swim or survive in the ocean.
“Disappearance of sea ice is becoming more frequent as our planet continues to warm and is having a devastating effect on penguin populations,” Katie Propp, chief operating officer of Penguins International, said in a statement.
Staff detected movement and noise coming from the egg on September 7, but noted that it had not emerged from the casing. Facebook/SeaWorld San Diego Video shared by SeaWorld shows the young calf struggling and unable to free itself from the shell, but only manages to break through the inner membrane. Facebook/SeaWorld San Diego
Unlike other species that produce several eggs a year, the female emperor lays only one egg once a year.
While other male and female penguins share incubation duties, the female emperor usually returns to the sea to feed after laying the egg, leaving the male to incubate the egg for more than two months when not eating. They usually mate for life, says the World Wildlife Fund.
But because the mother did not transfer the egg to the father, SeaWorld staff took the egg into their care.
Now the zoo is asking the public to help name the bird, putting three candidates’ names to a vote: Pearl, Pandora and Astrid.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn