ENDANGERED HUMBOLDT PENGUIN CHICK HATCHES

AT THE

THE MILWAUKEE COUNTY ZOO

The Milwaukee County Zoo is pleased to announce the hatching of a Humboldt penguin chick on May 20. This marks the first Humboldt penguin hatching at the Zoo since the summer of 2002. During the course of that year, nearly half of the penguin flock died due to complications related to the West Nile Virus.

“We’re extremely excited and cautiously optimistic with the hatching of this chick,” says Kim Smith, the Zoo’s curator of birds. “This chick reflects a very significant conservation effort because these birds have a highly endangered status.”

The chick was born to parents Jack and Eva. Jack was born at the Milwaukee County Zoo in 1991, and Eva, born in 1995, arrived from the Portland Zoo last year. Jack has never bred, but Eva is an experienced mother, having raised a chick in Portland. Both Jack and Eva are doing an exceptional job raising the chick. It will take at least 4 to 8 months for the chick to swim on its own, and on public exhibit.

As of July 11, the female chick weighed 3.175 kilograms. The chick has been named Titi by one of the Chilean researchers working with the Zoo on an ongoing basis as part of a long-term Humboldt penguin census project. The project was initiated in 1994.

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