The Humbolt penguins are not currently visible to viewers, but the zoo hopes to reevaluate the avian influenza situation in May and determine whether the birds can be safely moved back to their exhibit yards, said Kotheimer.On Friday July 10, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium officially opened Adventure Cove, their newest region and biggest project since Heart of Africa debuted in 2014. “As we’re facing more challenges, we’re going to see their numbers be affected more,” she said. The penguins are “highly affected” by fluctuations in the fish population, such as those caused by overfishing, around Chile and Peru, where they live in the wild, Kotheimer explained. The newest chick is the 35th Humbolt penguin the zoo has hatched since 1996, says Kotheimer. There, the youngster will need to practice swimming and learn “what’s acceptable in the penguin world,” according to Kotheimer. The chick will likely be introduced to the rest of the colony in another month, when its current coating of fluffy down is replaced by waterproof juvenile feathers. “We’re starting to see its personality - or its penguinality.” It’s really to the age – where it’s like a toddler, where it’s starting to really be interested in things, textures, it looks at the numbers on the scale when we weigh it,” she said. “We try to spend time preening the feathers, doing what parents would do, interacting with it. “I don’t know what they’re saying – hopefully good things,” said Kotheimer. Zoo staff show the chick a video they recorded of the adult Humbolt penguins on an iPad so it is exposed to penguin noises. Keepers are also making sure the little one gets to know what other penguins are like despite being raised by humans. The little one is “a great eater,” Kotheimer noted, and currently weighs 3.5 pounds (it’ll reach 8 to 10 by adulthood). Now a month old, the infant has graduated to eating whole fish just three times a day. When the chick first hatched, it had to be fed fish formula mixed by the zoo’s animal nutrition department every three hours. Zoos are moving their birds indoors to protect them against a deadly strain of the avian flu “The environment for raising a chick just wasn’t good,” she said.Ī sign is seen at the Milwaukee County Zoo showing the bird exhibits are closed to protect against bird flu Tuesday, April 5, 2022, in Milwaukee. Kotheimer explained that after moving the colony of 16 adult Humbolt penguins indoors, there wasn’t appropriate space for the penguins to nest. Cases of avian flu have been rising in backyard flocks and wild birds across dozens of states in recent months.Īs a result, the Columbus Zoo has moved all of its birds indoors, as have other zoos across the country. The avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) virus is very contagious among birds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though it poses a low risk to humans. “However, the avian influenza has just thrown us for a loop.” “Normally we absolutely love for the parents to do the work raising chicks, because there’s no better parent than the actual penguins themselves,” said Joy Kotheimer, one of the penguin keepers caring for the chick. The species is considered “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.įor now, the zoo’s latest addition is being hand-reared by the animal care team, staff told CNN.
The Columbus Zoo has been active in breeding Humbolt penguins through the American Species Survival Plan, a national breeding program that encourages zoos to maintain genetic diversity within vulnerable and endangered species. As penguin sexes closely resemble one another, a blood test is needed to determine gender. The tweet included photos of the tiny chick getting fed and examined by staff – who also took blood samples for a DNA test.
The zoo, located in Powell, Ohio, announced the fuzzy newborn had been born on March 20 in a tweet Wednesday. The Columbus Zoo welcomed the birth of a “cute bundle of feather floof,” as one keeper described the zoo’s newborn Humbolt penguin.
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