Baby Penguin Joins The Flock

A baby penguin has joined an endangered colony of birds at the African penguin exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, science museum officials said this week. The male chick is the first to hatch since the Academy reopened in 2008. He was born on Jan. 28 to father Robben and mother Ty. The two penguins were bred to maintain the species, which is facing extinction in the wild. The African penguin exhibit now boasts a colony of 16 birds. The baby penguin was living with his parents in a private nest out of public view until Wednesday when he joined the other birds.The museum is holding an online naming contest through April 30.

The top three names chosen by Academy staff for their originality and reflection of the museum’s mission to sustain wildlife will be put to a public vote. The winning name will be announced during a naming ceremony on May 16 at the museum. The contestant who submits the chosen name will be part of the ceremony and also earn a behind-the-scenes tour of the penguin colony, tickets to a museum sleepover event, plus a plush penguin toy. The new chick can be viewed at the exhibit through the online Penguin Cam at http://www.calacademy.org/webcams/penguins/.

Pierre Penguin Celebrates His 30th Birthday

The Penguin Post has learned that Pierre, the world famous wetsuit-wearing penguin at the California Academy of Sciences, recently celebrated his 30th birthday on Saturday.  For his special day Pierre received special fishy treats and was serenaded by members of the San Francisco Girls Chorus.  Pierre’s story started in 2007, when he wasn’t molting (replacing his feathers) properly.  To help Pierre a custom penguin wetsuit was made for him to keep warm, something that had never been done before. The suit eventually worked, and Pierre was able to re-grow his feathers and rejoin the colony and has been happily waddling ever since.

Penguins & Sharks As Roomates

New roommates can be dicey, but imagine the unease among the penguins at the California Academy of Sciences, as the Penguin Post  has learned that in a few weeks, they’ll be sharing their living quarters with a school of sharks.  Academy biologists are training five pyjama sharks, recently acquired from an aquarium in Portugal, to cohabitate with the 16 resident African penguins. This will be only the second aquarium in the world, aside from the Lisbon aquarium, to mix these two species. The purpose is not to create mass carnage, but to show both species in a more natural context. The two animals hail from the same locale, the temperate waters of the South African and Namibian coast. Academy staffers are confident the sharks won’t eat the penguins. “I’m not nervous at all. I think they’ll get along great,” said the academy’s shark expert, biologist Nancy Levine. “I think it’ll liven up everything.” If anything, Levine said, it’s the sharks that should be nervous. Pyjama sharks are docile, smallish creatures that usually stick to squid and small fish and don’t have an appetite for penguins. They spend most of their time hiding in caves or trolling along the sea floor. “Jaws,” they’re not. Penguins, on the other hand, have sharp, hook-like beaks, a territorial nature and are equally adept on land and water. They’re also on the curious side and likely to tease their new roommates, Levine said. “My guess is they’ll check out the sharks and then lose interest after the novelty wears off,” she said. In Portugal, the penguins have a tendency to nip at the sharks’ fins and tear up their egg cases. If that occurs in San Francisco, the sharks will get their own room back. Since the sharks arrived in December, the staff has kept them in a backstage tank where they’re undergoing training for dining etiquette. Training consists of staffers ringing a bell underwater and feeding the sharks squid hooked to a long stick. Gradually they raise the stick, so the sharks get in the habit of swimming to the surface when they hear the bell. This will make feeding-time easier once they move in with the penguins, and make sure that penguins won’t be on the menu.

Penguins waiting for their new roommates