Nothing Says Easter Like a Penguin Chick

Photo credit: Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo

Move over snow leopard cubs, the Woodland Park Zoo has a new baby on the block. A Humboldt penguin chick hatched yesterday. The wee baby penguin (only 2.1 ounces!) is the first offspring for mother Dora and father PJ, both three years old. And there's more where that came from: there's another five eggs--across three penguin pair nests in the zoo's Humboldt colony--at least three of which are believed to be fertile. Dora and PJ have another egg showing "pipping activity," and it's expected to hatch on Easter Sunday. Just like Jesus!

This'll be the first set of penguin babies hatched since the zoo got their Humboldt penguins last year and started on their species survival plan to breed this endangered bird. The chicks and parents will need some time to bond in private, so it won't be until early summer that you'll be able to see these little guys in the cute feathery flesh. By that point, the chicks will have molted from the grayish brown, downy feathers they're born with to completely gray feathers. It won't be till next year that they'll take on their adult look.