Last week we showed you some pictures of our newest member of the SeaWorld family, and asked if you could identify him. You all certainly know your baby animals - the vast majority of guesses were correct, identifying the chick as a penguin. But the last time I checked only two individuals, Bethany and Amanda, even got the species - king penguin!
Great job, Bethany and Amanda! The reason I decided to initiate this “guessing game” is that even after years of caring for penguins I still can’t get over the fact that king penguins, arguably the most elegant-looking of all the penguins, start out looking like little aliens. Their brown bodies don’t have any feathers yet, and their heads look too big for their bodies. And although they’re small, they have a piercingly loud vocalization that sounds almost like a whistle, which they use to solicit food from mom and dad.
Their parents keep them tucked snugly away in their brood pouch, which is a flap of feathered skin above their feet that is specially designed to both incubate the egg and keep the chick warm and safe. We get to see the chick about every five days, when we weigh it to monitor its growth. We also catch glimpses of it throughout the day as the parents feed it - easily up to 50% of the chick’s body weight a day in regurgitated fish!
If you visit the Penguin Encounter at SeaWorld San Antonio this summer you will most likely get a chance to see king chicks. They should be easy to spot - just look for big, brown, fluffy penguins!
