When the gate is open....

.... but you are not quite ready to leave. These three yellow-eyed penguin chicks have spent a week in our soft-release pen and are ready to head out so we opened the door but they were in no hurry to leave. The idea is that they can come back if they have trouble finding food because they know that if they come and sit in this pen food will be delivered (or they get put in a bag again and taken back to hospital). We have had chicks self-admit this way. Hopefully these three got the idea of coming back. For now though it looks like they are content to sit in their pen with the door open. (They had left by the next morning - probably joining the exodus of the adults on their way to sea.)