First artificially incubated penguin

The first penguin chick to be hatched from an artificially incubated egg in Malaysia is now 13 days old and growing fatter at the Underwater World Langkawi (UWL).

UWL senior curator Tan Ean Kok said the Black Footed African penguin chick weighed just 72gm when it was hatched. It now weighs a healthy 170gm.

Tan said the success of the breeding programme through incubation would further ensure the survival of the penguins held in captivity.

“Some penguins reject the egg. Some lay two eggs and take more care of the first than the second.

“In such cases, we need to put the eggs in incubators to ensure their survival.

“We tried incubating five eggs last year, but none hatched.

“We were excited when the first chick hatched from the incubator on April 17 this year,” he said,

Tan said that, so far, 10 penguin chicks had hatched at UWL. The first hatched on March 17 last year while the youngest hatched on April 17 this year.

“But so far, only the Black Footed African penguins have produced offspring.

An urban legend - with a penguin star

Utah's Hogle Zoo has received several reports and inquiries about whether they are housing a stolen penguin from California, which was stolen by a young boy from Lehi. Zoo officials say the rumor is merely an urban legend and that no such stolen penguin exists.

While it may sound like an intriguing story, it has its plot holes.

First of all, the San Diego Zoo does not even have a penguin exhibit. And even if it did, zookeepers say it would be nearly impossible to steal such an animal, undetected.

Salt Lake City’s zoo has made it clear that there is no stolen penguins at its exhibit, and that any such attempt to implement one there would be a risky – and possibly painful – endeavor.

“Penguins look cute and cuddly, but unfortunately they do have beaks and they do like to bite,” Braithwaite said. “So it would be a little bit tough.”

Ceramic Penguin Bank

March of the pennies
CERAMIC PENGUIN BANK

Put a freeze on your spending habits by saving all your spare change in everyone's favorite arctic animal. This adorable penguin bank created by artist David DeSalvo is perfect for kids saving their allowances or grown-ups with pockets full of loose coins. Saving money has never been so cool. Handmade in Wisconsin.

Penguin costume for your Roomba

If you don't dress up your Roomba, it's just a naked vacuum

Sunny the Penguin

With over 2 million Roombas with loving homes and over half of the Roomba owners already naming their Roombas ... yes you know we're talking about you ... that sound you hear is the call of Roombas from all over the world screaming for clothes.

Penguin weight watching

The penguins at SeaWorld Orlando are lining up to check their weights.

In order to make it easier to get the king penguins weighed, SeaWorld's Aquacultural Department trained them to wait in line and then step onto a scale.

Obtaining a penguin’s weight is important because it is an indicator of their overall health and condition. In February 2006, the aviculturists team began training king penguins to weigh themselves, a task that had been no easy “feet” in the past due to the penguins large size (weighing up to 40 pounds) and strong flippers.

The training earned the department the the“Husbandry Behavior of the Year Award” at this year’s International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators conference in spring.

Kiwi penguin lands on his feet with $63m home

And the male penguin, now known across the Tasman as "Mr Munro" has landed on his feet, being pampered with a couple of sex-starved females, a new architect-designed home, and all the fish he can eat.

Mr Munro washed up on the NSW central coast near Norah Head in November last year. He was quite underweight, had breathing and respiratory problems after a 2000km swim from the South Island.

He has since been pampered back to a healthy 4kg.

"He was wheezing and severely underweight," said Taronga Zoo's penguin keeper Jo Walker. "We've fattened him up on a diet of pilchard, whiting and squid."

And she yesterday introduced Mr Munro to the only other two Fiordland penguins in captivity – two females who have lived without a bloke for 13 years.

"Due to strict importation and quarantine rules for bird species we literally had to wait for a male to wash up on our shoreline," Ms Walker said.

"They're a bit excited," Ms Walker told the Sydney Morning Herald . "Chalky's been grooming herself a lot lately."

Female Penguins See Male Penguin for First Time in 13 Years

Happy times have arrived at an Australian zoo, where two Fiordland Crested female penguins laid eyes on a sight they haven't seen for 13 years -- a male penguin. Zoo officials have named the hunchbacked hunk Mr. Munro after he washed up on a Sydney shore -- he'd traveled 2,000 kilometers, all the way from New Zealand. Clearly the exhausting journey was worth it -- now he has not one, but two ladies competing for his attention. Sydney's Taronga Zoo is the only one to breed the Fiordland Crested penguin in captivity, so hopefully this penguin Prince Charming and his chosen lady friend will make up for lost time. Someone has to continue the species. No pressure or anything!

Fairy Penguin

Toy Emperor Penguin

Emperor Penguin with Baby by Fiesta

Price: $21.00

Penguin Cake

Cute Baby Rockhopper Penguin

Penguin Water Dispenser

Heartbreak Hotel as king penguin can't leave

Elvis is a king penguin that washed ashore near Cape St Francis in January, many thousands of kilometres away from his home on one of the sub-Antarctic islands.

No one knows how he got here, but when Trudi Malan of the Ajubatus Marine Rehabilitation Centre in St Francis was alerted, she and a local nature conservator rescued the creature.

The fellow is in a rehab centre on a windy headland in Cape St Francis and, every now and then, he throws back his head and croons his rather haunting song.

"I can't believe how well he's looking now. He is beautiful. My wish is to release him back home, possibly to Marion Island, but the scientists say we can't because of the risk that he will carry back diseases.

"I understand that from a scientific point they can't take that risk. But for us, it's a very emotional thing. Kings are very gregarious penguins, they breed shoulder to shoulder and they like to be with their friends," said Malan.

"And every time he calls, ah, I just want to die. He throws it back and makes this sound. It's beautiful but it's so sad."

The Penguin Foundation

The Penguin Foundation was established to protect and preserve one of Australia’s most important natural assets – the Little Penguins.

The Penguin Foundation raises and allocates funds to projects ranging from penguin rescue and rehabilitation in the event of a man-made disaster; to building new penguin nesting areas; monitoring penguin health and behaviour; and protecting the Little Penguins’ natural environment. Resources will also be used to undertake other associated wildlife and conservation activities on and around Phillip Island.

Hatchling

Cute Baby Penguin Chick

For Shedd Aquarium penguins, love is in the air

Forget the flowers, chocolates or champagne. For these lovebirds, the answer is in the stones.

Some 50 penguins at the John G. Shedd Aquarium kicked off the breeding season with what is, for penguins at least, the most romantic of activities: rock-hunting.

Each year, marine trainers scatter rocks throughout the aquarium's Oceanarium where the birds swim, waddle and eat. The rocks are brought in around the same time that the penguins in the wild would begin mating. The sleek black-and-white birds use golf ball-size stones to build the nests where they will lay their eggs.

Waddle over to Penguin House

THE ENQUIRER/MEGGAN BOOKER

It's not easy to make eye contact with a penguin, but it's possible. At the new Penguin Encounters attraction at Newport Aquarium, human visitors can get close to three new blackfooted penguins as the walk, dive and swim. This one is named Simon.

Rare baby penguin hatches at park

THE first baby penguin of the year has hatched at Weymouth Sea Life Park.

Staff at the park were delighted to find the Humboldt penguin chick cheeping in its nest box.

Displays member Stephanie Eustace discovered the large egg in pieces during her checks and heard the new resident hiding under its parents Rowan and Maple - two of the park's rare Humboldt penguins.

Displays supervisor Sarah Leaney said: "The parents keep the chicks very well hidden away in nest boxes because naturally in the wild they would build nests well away from any kind of threats - it's still very early days.

"Here we have high fences to stop foxes and netting over the enclosures and it is expected to come out at about 90 days old."

The march of the tie-ins

SeaWorld jumps on a movie's bandwagon, hoping to capitalize on all things penguin

With their quaint, rolling gait and always impeccable black-and-white attire, SeaWorld's penguins are the quintessence of cute.

But how are they as marketing partners?

The San Diego marine theme park will find out in June when Sony Pictures Animation releases its computer-animated movie “Surf's Up,” with more than a dozen corporate partners to help promote it with product tie-ins. SeaWorld will brand its penguin exhibit with the film's theme this summer.

SeaWorld entered into an “asset exchange” agreement with Sony rather than a straight licensing agreement, said John Sartorius, vice president of retail marketing for SeaWorld's St. Louis-based parent company, Busch Entertainment Corporation.

As part of the tie-in, SeaWorld will run “Surf's Up” movie trailers in the park, offer penguin-themed toys and merchandise, and participate in a “Win a Trip to SeaWorld” sweepstakes. SeaWorld will also take some of its penguins on the road, attending media events to promote the movie as well as the film's premiere in Los Angeles.

Penguin Identification Chart

Click for larger photo.

Wheeeee!

G.R.Guy Nature Photography

Penguin Parade

Cute Baby Gentoo Penguin

Want to monitor climate change? P-p-p-pick up a penguin!

We are used to hearing about the effects of climate change in terms of unusual animal behaviour, such as altering patterns of fish and bird migration. However, scientists at the University of Birmingham are trying out an alternative bio-indicator – the king penguin – to investigate whether they can be used to monitor the effects of climate change.

“If penguins are travelling further or diving deeper for food, that tells us something about the availability of particular fish in regions of the Antarctic. We may be able to assess the pressure exerted by king penguins on this ecosystem, and look at the effects of both climate change and overfishing in this region of the world”, says Dr Lewis Halsey who will present his results on Wednesday 4th April at the Society for Experimental Biology’s Annual Meeting in Glasgow.

Penguin mourned at Maryland Zoo

Maryland Zoo in Baltimore workers are mourning the bird they called 10-63.

Veterinarians called in a specialist to try to correct a congenital spine defect that plagued the 6-month-old male penguin. He had been recovering until Friday, when workers found 10-63 lying in a corner of his enclosure at the zoo’s hospital.

“We are really saddened by his death, but we learned a lot from the surgery and from his after-care,” zoo veterinarian Carol Bradford said.

Zoo staff are awaiting a detailed necropsy, an animal autopsy, from Johns Hopkins University before determining a cause of death, but Bradford said, “preliminary reports indicate he may have had a respiratory condition, possibly due to being hospitalized and the operation.”

The Maryland Zoo has a colony of about 51 African penguins living at Rock Island, one of the zoo’s most popular exhibits. They breed enough young each year to supply other zoos, she said.

Gentoo Penguins, Antarctica

from flickr, by Rita Willaert

Penguins, both funny and lovable, are all the rage these days

Penguins are anything but rare birds in Hollywood these days.

In the footsteps of March of the Penguins and Happy Feet, the wave continues with the recently released Farce of the Penguins spoof, the DVD release of 1995's animated The Pebble and the Penguin and the upcoming summer cartoon Surf's Up, about surfing penguins.

The penguins that instigated the action in Madagascar starred in their own cartoon short and are being developed as lead players for a cartoon TV show.

Even Robert Altman's final movie, A Prairie Home Companion, featured Garrison Keillor telling a droll joke about the birds: "Two penguins are standing on an ice floe. The first penguin says, `You look like you're wearing a tuxedo.' The second penguin says, `What makes you think I'm not?'"

When asked why the joke is funny, Keillor replies, "I guess because people laugh at it."

The same somehow holds for penguins. People laugh at them and love them unconditionally. Why? Just because they're funny and lovable.

"They're an anthropomorphic gift. A little kid dressed in too many winter clothes, walking around and falling in the snow," said Chris Jenkins, producer of Surf's Up, which hits theaters in June.

Giant Penguin