First penguin chicks born at California zoo in years as handlers reveal unique rearing plan

A Bay Area zoo is celebrating the arrival of a pack of baby South American penguins for the first time in years, as zoo officials reveal the chicks will be hand reared in order to ensure success.

San Francisco Zoo officials announced the successful hatching of three Magellanic penguin chicks who are “growing steadily” behind the scenes, the press release read.

Video posted on the zoo’s Facebook, captured the little fluffy chicks getting used to their new home as squeaks and peeps of the 4-week-old birds fill the Penguin nursery.

The red glow seen in the video isn’t anything sinister — it’s coming from heat lamps keeping the chicks warm while they grow in their feathers and develop better insulation, according to zoo officials.

As the young birds continue to mature, the lamps will gradually be raised to cool the nursery, helping prepare the chicks for life outdoors and the warmer temperatures expected later this summer.

The video also showed how their beds are filled with rolled towels and giant stuffed animal penguins as they get ready for life outside.

Members of the zoo’s staff have been “hand-rearing them nearly 24-hours a day since they hatched in mid-May,” the release noted.

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The reason the zoo said it opted for hand rearing over parent reared, is because “some of the potential parents were not considered experienced.”

“One of the key reasons is that it had been a few years since we’ve had chicks and some of the potential parents were not at the experience level we prefer,” Brice Smith, the zoo’s assistant curator of birds said in a statement to CBS News.

“So basically, we decided to hand-rear them, which entails nearly 24-hour care in the beginning.”

Prior to the recent arrival of the trio, the zoo had been hatching two to five chicks every year since the 1980s, per the report.

Zoo curator Quinn Brown said for a few years the zoo wasn’t allowed to do any breeding, but the death of a few older ones meant they could resume.

“Breeding is highly strategic,” Brown said in a statement to the SF Chronicle. “Some of our pairs have been very successful, and some are not approved to breed as their genetics may be overrepresented in accredited facilities.”

Zoo officials said that the SF Zoo’s Magellanic penguins are considered the “most successful breeding colony” in an Association of Zoos and Aquariums facility, per the release.

While visitors are dying to see the baby chicks, the zoo said, for now, they will remain behind the scenes as they continue to grow.

“When they’ve matured a bit more, we will start teaching them how to swim,” Smith told the Chronicle.

Later this summer, zoo officials said guests will get their first chance to see them in action when they take part in the zoo’s annual ceremonial “March” to Penguin Island, the outdoor habitat in the zoo which features one of the largest gatherings of the flightless penguins in North America.