Tennessee Aquarium Penguin Chick Learns to Swim
Watch as the Macaroni Penguin Baby Enjoys a Swim With Its Parents
Oct 8, 2009
The Tennessee Aquarium penguin chick is taking his first chilly swims. Though the baby penguin was reluctant at first, he’s finally decided to take the plunge.
Welcoming the First Tennessee Aquarium Penguin Baby
Only four months ago, on June 18, 2009, Senior Aviculturist, Amy Graves, was proud to witness this first Tennessee Aquarium penguin chick hatch. It was an event the staff had been looking forward to since the exhibit’s debut.
Last year during the breeding season, Graves supplied the macaroni and gentoo penguins with rocks for nesting material. The birds went through the motions of stacking pebbles to build their nests, but those nests remained empty. “When you move penguins,” Graves explains, “it can take up to two years to get their breeding and molting cycles back on track.”
Spring 2009 marked the exhibit’s two year anniversary. Graves introduced rocks on the first of April, and the penguins instantly started building nests and pairing off. Soon, aquarium staff were excited to see the macaroni pair, Paulie and Chaos, protecting their first egg.
Macaroni Penguin Parents Care for Their Egg
During late spring, Paulie and Chaos took six hour shifts on the rocky nest to keep their egg warm. They gently rotated the egg with their beaks and feet and protectively shooed curious penguins away from their nest. The pair even attentively preened each other as they endured the 33-39 day incubation period.
Despite the macaroni penguins’ expert parenting, Graves worried about getting her hopes up. “I didn’t want to be disappointed,” she remarks, “so I’d nearly convinced myself the egg wasn’t fertile.”
Tennessee Aquarium Penguin Baby Hatches
Then, on June 18, after a Q&A with aquarium visitors, Graves reached over to give the dutiful macaroni father a fish. The penguin raised up off his nest just enough for Graves to catch sight of a quarter-sized hole in the egg and a tiny beak pecking its way out of the shell.
The long hatching process for a macaroni chick can take up to 48 hours. These penguins work free from their eggs without help, and this chick eagerly watched by Aquarium staff was no exception. “He came out of the shell around 2:00,” Graves remembers. “I was getting glimpses of a little wing or some gray feathers, but it wasn’t until the next day that I saw the whole chick.”
Once the chick hatched, the macaroni parents quickly got to work feeding and protecting the penguin baby from curious onlookers. “As soon as the chick started making little chipping sounds,” Graves recalls, “all the macaronis had to come see. We finally put up an acrylic barrier to relieve the parents from the constant barrage of macaronis pushing to get their look at the chick.”
The Tennessee Aquarium Penguin Chick Gets Ready to Swim
Like all macaroni penguins, this penguin baby was born with fluffy grey and white down which could not be exposed to the cold water. Over the next few weeks, the macaroni penguin chick went through a scruffy stage as his juvenile, then his swimming feathers, grew in.
Until the chick had his waterproof swimming feathers, which macaroni penguins develop at around 65 days of age, Graves kept him behind the acrylic barrier. “We had to make sure that the chick didn’t get wet,” she says. “A chick’s downy feathers don’t protect them from the cold and they can’t swim. In the wild, colonies are far offshore, but in captivity the nests are right at the water’s edge.”
During the month of August, the penguin chick was given daily exercise with walks off exhibit. In mid-September, Graves introduced the baby penguin to a shallow pool in the aquarium’s back-up area. The macaroni chick surprised her though by showing little interest in water play. The chick was allowed to roam the exhibit freely for small blocks of time each day to get acquainted with the other penguins and the water.
On September 24, the Aquarium staff’s preparation paid off as the macaroni penguin baby took his first dip. Guests to the aquarium this fall can’t help smiling while they watch this healthy, little penguin diving into the water and zipping around the tank with his parents.
Quotes and information obtained in conversation with Tennessee Aquarium's Senior Aviculturist, Amy Graves.
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