Please welcome Aquarium of the Pacific‘s newest member!
The newest chick is a Magellanic Penguin who was previously being taken of by its parents. Now that it is old enough, it will be staying in a supervised nursery where it is now learning how to take a whole fish from keepers and how to swim in a shallow pool.
Penguin eggs incubate between 38 and 43 days before it will hatch. Penguin chicks hatch with their eyes closed and aren’t able to fully open them until a week after being born. The parents take turns incubating the eggs and when the baby is born they alternate feedings and raising the baby. After 90 days, the chick will fledge and experience the world on their own!
The Aquarium is currently home to twenty other Magellanic Penguins, which are native to the coasts of Chile and Argentina in South America. You can watch Yolo here every day!
In addition, you may be wondering why you may see a stuffed animal of a penguin, a towel, and other items in with the penguin chicks. These items are there for enrichment, and you may see the penguins playing behind the towel or snuggling up to the plush.
Content and photo courtesy of Aquarium of the PacificÂ
