Pyne is a boy

Our yellow-eyed penguin chicks are getting their 90 day check-up and that involves weighing as well as measuring. We can guess in many cases whether they are male or female depending on the size of their heads and in Pyne's case, it turned out to be a male: the head is already bigger than most females and he is not fully grown yet. 
Unfortunately quite a number of chicks had to come into rehab this week because they had lost a lot of weight (not Pyne, he was fine). We are checking the rest regularly to relieve the parents that are obviously struggling to fatten up the chicks. Why? Don't know. However, some of the mums in particular are quite young and they may not be coping. So it's a good idea to give them a break. They have done great to get their chicks this far. We will be posting an update on all the sponsored chicks and their parents this weekend to let you all lovely sponsors know what's happening with your chicks.