December 2009

30 December 2009
Zoo penguins help Antarctic birds
(UK)
Macaroni penguins at Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire are helping scientists with a new project to track the movements of their wild cousins. The birds are trialling new tags that record light levels and time to work out where they are for up to three years. If trials are successful the tags could be used on penguins in Antarctica.
Read BBC News article

18 December 2009
King of the chicks
(UK)
Keepers at Edinburgh Zoo are celebrating the arrival of a king penguin chick. The chick, which is almost two months old, is the first king penguin to be born at the zoo in five years.
Read Edinburgh Zoo press release
Read BBC News article and watch video

16 December 2009
Toxins not cause of penguin problems
(New Zealand)
Toxins such as organic pollutants have been ruled out as the cause of deformities in endangered yellow-eyed penguins at Okia Reserve on the Otago Peninsula last summer. Massey University wildlife scientists have been investigating the unusual skull deformities which occurred in eight of 34 penguins and was so severe they were not able to survive in the wild.
Read Otago Daily Times article

14 December 2009
Penguin fingerprinting
(UK)
Penguins’ DNA is being used for the first time to study how they migrate between colonies. Researchers from The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the University of Sheffield have identified genetic markers that can be used to track the movement of penguins and ultimately determine whether Antarctica’s changing climate is driving them from their favoured breeding sites.
Read ZSL press release

Proud dads hatch their chick
(South Africa)
An African penguin chick born five months ago after it was incubated by male penguin couple Molly and Guido at the East London Aquarium is healthy and growing bigger by the day. Blood tests to determine its gender will also determine its name - Ryan if it's a boy, Zoe if it's a girl.
Read Daily Dispatch Online article

5 December 2009
Penguin's cancer case is a first
(USA)
Tica, a male penguin from Newport Aquarium in Kentucky, was the first chinstrap penguin hatched in the USA to live to adulthod. Now he's clocked up another first, by having the first known case of penguin cancer to be aggressively treated. The 16-year-old bird is undergoing radiation treatment at the Cincinnati Animal Referral & Emergency Centre, and so far he seems to be getting better.
Read Cincinnati.Com article and watch video

4 December 2009
Island penguin chicks die of starvation
(Australia)
Early predictions that Victoria's Phillip Island would have a record number of little penguin chicks this season have proven tragically wrong. The local fish population moved offshore, says penguin biologist Andre Chiaradia, forcing the adult birds to remain at sea for weeks at a time, and half of all hatchlings have died of starvation in recent weeks.
Read ABC News article

2 December 2009
Fewer nests but chicks healthy
(New Zealand)
The breeding season for the endangered yellow-eyed penguin along Otago’s coast is underway with 445 nests counted – 25% fewer than last season’s “bumper” year. The good news is that this season’s penguin chicks at Okia Reserve so far have no sign of the skull deformities that affected last season’s chicks.
Read Otago Daily Times article

	Web penguin.net.nz