Double fluff: 2 fuzzy penguin chicks hatch at zoo

Fluffy gray hatchlings join the Humboldt penguin colony

Two tiny Humboldt penguin chicks just came out of their shells at the Oregon Zoo.

"We've been keeping an eye on these eggs since they were laid earlier this winter," said Nicole LaGreco, who oversees the penguin area at the zoo. "Both sets of parents nested wonderfully, and the chicks hatched right on schedule."

The first of the young penguins began "pipping" (when a chick's beak breaks through the membrane of its shell) Monday, March 9 and emerged early on Tuesday, March 10. The second chick followed a week later, pipping on March 17 and hatching March 19. Humboldt penguins typically hatch 40 days after eggs are laid, and according to LaGreco it takes two or three days from when they pip to when they're fully hatched.

Though the two chicks hatched just a week apart, they won't get to know each other until they're a little older. According to LaGreco, penguin chicks stay in the nest with their parents until they're around 3 months old.

"Once the chicks are big enough to venture out of their nests, we expect them to spend a lot of time together," LaGreco said. "We're excited for zoo guests to watch them interact - and each chick has a built-in swimming buddy."

Once they're both waddling and swimming on their own, the chicks will begin to explore the rugged terrain of the zoo's Penguinarium, which simulates the species' native habitat along the rocky coast of Chile and Peru. Until then, LaGreco says, the young birds will be keeping cozy inside their nest boxes, growing strong on a diet of regurgitated "fish smoothie" provided by their devoted parents.

The chicks will be nearly as tall as their parents by the summer, but easy to tell apart by their plumage: Young Humboldts are grayish-brown all over and don't develop their distinctive black-and-white tuxedo markings for a couple years.

The fluffy, pint-sized new arrivals - which are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand - are the 194th and 195th Humboldt chicks to hatch at the zoo since it began breeding the threatened species in the 1980s.

Humboldt penguins, which live along the South American coastline off Peru and Chile, are classified as "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Of the world's 17 penguin species, Humboldts are among the most at risk, threatened by overfishing of their prey species, entanglement in fishing nets, and breeding disruption due to commercial removal of the guano deposits where the penguins lay their eggs. Their population is estimated at 12,000 breeding pairs.