It Will Stay With Parents In Partly-Secluded Nesting Area
The newly born penguin chick at Byculla zoo is being fed by its parents, Flipper and Molt, who have been taking their feeds regularly of fish like Bombay duck, eel and tarli, Dr Madhumita Kale, head veterinarian for the penguin enclosure, told TOI.
The chick is yet to be named. Its sex is unknown and the zoo authorities will determine it using DNA analysis in due course.
On Wednesday evening, the chick started hatching as Flipper was incubating it. Her partner, Molt, also appeared distracted and nervous, and kept moving in and out of the nesting area. “At 4pm, the parents had their last feed on Wednesday and continued incubating the egg. There is an internal air cell in an egg that had started pipping and we realised it could hatch any time. We kept constant watch and a couple of hours later the external pipping (cracking) also started,” said Kale.
The eyes of the chick are shut and it cannot swim yet. “It will take around four months before it can be introduced into the shallower waters. We may even place a swim tub for them if required (see box),” said an official of the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan va Pranisangrahalaya. The officials described Flipper and Molt as very good parents.
A team of four doctors are monitoring the penguins round the clock. The zoo-keepers are surprised the egg hatched exactly on the 40th day. “It’s such a coincidence the chick hatched on Independence Day. We are keeping it under close observation and special care is being taken to ensure it is not exposed to any infection,” said Dr Sanjay Tripathi, the zoo director. Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray took to Twitter to cheer the new arrival. “Our penguin parents have delivered a freedom baby! The parents and the chic (sic) are doing well,” he said.
But the public will have to wait for at least two-three months for its first glimpse of the chick. “We are following the best practices to ensure the chick grows naturally and so, for the next few months it will remain in the nesting area within the enclosure which is partly barricaded,” said Tripathi.
The zoo authorities said after the egg was laid, they were fully prepared in case the parents did not incubate the egg. “An artificial incubator and an ICU had been kept ready. However, the parents were extremely dedicated; a few days ago Flipper incubated for almost 48 hours at a stretch. Flipper, being the eldest of all the seven penguins in the enclosure, is extremely dominating, and her partner, Molt, though the youngest, is very aggressive. So none of the other penguins came close to the egg as the parents took turns to incubate it,” said Tripathi. Fears of the egg being infertile were discarded early since parents generally discard such eggs.
No comments:
Post a Comment