Two fluffy chicks named Doug and Barbara are the first to be hatched from eggs laid by the San Diego Zoo‘s colony of endangered African penguins, the zoo announced Wednesday.
The chicks, named after Douglas G. Myers, president and CEO of San Diego Zoo Global, and his wife Barbara, are now two months old and in good health.
Shortly after hatching, animal care staff began working with the chicks to get them used to human interaction. Keepers said this early hands-on training is vital to providing effective care for the birds, and the youngsters will be reintroduced into the colony within the next few weeks.
“Doug and Barbara are sweet, amazing birds, and we want them to feel safe,” said Debbie Denton, a keeper at the zoo. “We work with them while they’re young because it helps them be comfortable around us when we feed them, do health checks, or change their name bands.”
The African penguin is listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature‘s “red list” of threatened species. Once one of southern Africa’s most abundant seabirds, the species has suffered a massive population decline—from an estimated 1 million breeding pairs to only 23,000 today
Historically, penguin eggs and guano were commercially harvested, which had a devastating effect on the population. Although both practices were abolished toward the end of the 20th century, other threats—including a lack of readily available food due to overfishing, climate change, oil and marine pollution, the emergence of avian influenza A virus, habitat degradation and predation by seals, sharks and land-based predators—contribute to a continuing population decline.
The zoo’s penguin breeding program was established to help this endangered species survive.
