Exciting News As African Penguin Chicks Join The Zoo Family

UPDATE:
On May 13th, officials at the Ross Park Zoo released this information:

The first chick that hatched on March 23 is the boy. Parker, named after Park Avenue, one of the two streets on which the Ross Park Zoo is located, stayed with mom and dad.  His sister, arriving two days later, now named Morgan, after Morgan Road, was put with experienced parents, Howard and Adasha, to be raised in a foster family situation, a first for the Ross Park Zoo.

Both chicks continue to make progress this week. They have begun taking whole fish from the keepers and are starting to get some waterproof feathers in.

Original Story:
Over the Mother's Day weekend, Binghamton's Ross Park Zoo announced a couple of new additions to the zoo family.

On March 23rd and March 26th, two endangered African Penguins hatched at the Ross Park Zoo, increasing the penguin colony to 12 members. The newborn chicks are the offspring of first-time penguin parents Lucky and Aurora.

Zoo officials noted that it would be difficult for these new parents to raise two chicks successfully, so the second chick was placed with past successful parents, Howard and Adasha, to become first-time foster parents.

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The sex of the chicks is being determined through blood tests, and their genders and names will be revealed in a few weeks. The two chicks will have to wait a bit longer before they can be in the outdoor climate, as they need to grow more and receive all the necessary vaccinations.

The new African penguins should be out for the public to see this summer. Late last year (2024), the Ross Park Zoo welcomed two juvenile female penguins to the colony - one-and-a-half-year-old Alice and two-and-a-half-year-old Ozzie arrived in Binghamton from the Steinhart Aquarium in California in October.

According to Zoo officials, African Penguins are a tropical species that generally choose to stay inside until the temperatures warm to at least the upper 30s and into the 40s. Ozzie and Alice began greeting visitors with the others at the penguin pool just a few weeks ago.

Ross Park Zoo officials note that the typical breeding age for African penguins is 4 years. When they lay an average of one or two eggs, they use a special fold of skin underneath their stomachs to keep them warm.

Both parents incubate, care for, and guard the young equally. African penguins are critically endangered in their native range along the coasts of South and Southwestern Africa.