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From our scientist, Hiltrun Ratz, PhD
scientist@penguins.org.nz |
This sponsored yellow-eyed penguin chick in our rehab facility is doing very well - and so is her father: we found him pre-moult and put him on the scales and he weighed almost 8kg. That is plenty heavy so he does not need a helping hand through the moult. It is a silver lining of raising the chicks in rehab: the parents have been on holiday since we took them and have been able to fatten up nicely without having to worry about feeding the chicks.
This chick is also quite young - hence the brown down, but it certainly knows how to grab food when it comes to feeding time. It's almost there and queueing up for being released within a couple of weeks.
This yellow-eyed penguin chick in our rehab facility is one of the youngest - as shown by the attractive mohawk (is that how you spell it?) hair do. We aim to transfer the chicks into the soft-release pens about a week before they are 106 days old which is the age when they would naturally fledge. In the soft-release pens they are fed daily for a week. This gives them a chance to meet the locals, learn about the area and hopefully learn to come back to this place if they can't work out how to feed because we will be watching and have fish ready to hand out if required. But for now Pinke still needs to finish off that dive-suit.....
And sleek he is.....having changed from brown and fluffy to real-penguin looking, this sponsored yellow-eyed penguin chick knows all about feeding - that is being fed. Soon it will be time to learn how to do that in the ocean.
The two sponsored sibling have managed to get into the same pen and stay there - others appear to re-arrange themselves no end and we never know who is where. Not that it matters, everyone is getting fed just the same, but the chicks decide who they want to be with in the pen.
He certainly has grown up heaps....getting ready to leave soon - for now though he was more interested in whether the photographer was actually there to deliver dinner - it was that time!
We brought 49 chicks into rehab at the end of December to protect them from predators and they have been doing a lot of growing up. All the sponsored chicks are doing very well and pictures will be posted of them here presently.
This week the first chicks will head out into the pens in the colony where they will be fed once a day for a week before the gate is opened and they can go if they are ready. If not, there will be another meal delivered the next day until the chicks are gone. This sponsored chick has been in our rehab facility since he was a brown fluff ball. Since he arrived he has learnt how to eat nicely out of the hand and changed from brown and fluffy to proper-penguin looking. He's safe from predators and mosquitos here but soon it will be time to head away into the sea to learn how to catch fish. All the chicks will leave with good weights giving them the best possible chance out there.
These two who hatched in Claire's box almost never fail to be super photogenic - one of them draped itself decoratively over some branches while trying to sleep.
This is Kowhai trying to hide behind a pole that holds up the roof over her cave nest. She was home alone that day with parents out at sea fishing. She certainly couldn't help herself peeking round the corner to see who was coming to visit.
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