The Bronx Zoo and Taronga are working on a joint breeding program for the penguins.
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Little penguins also are known as fairy penguins or blue penguins and are the smallest of the 18 penguin species.
This is the story of a little penguin that’s creating a big splash. The Bronx Zoo just welcomed an impossibly tiny baby penguin into its community.
A couple months ago, the Bronx Zoo had a very special delivery: Its first fairy penguin chick was born on May 10th, making it the first time the species was bred at the zoo. With the exception of the new chick, all of the birds in the Bronx Zoo colony were hatched at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, and brought to the Bronx Zoo as part of a breeding program. Both parents care for and incubates the egg. After about 50 days, they lose their downy plumage in favor of waterproof feathers.
The birds are native to New Zealand and the southern coast of Australia.
This exhibit opened a year ago and all of the birds, with the exception of the new chick, were hatched at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia as part of a breeding program.
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A colony of the birds were sent to the NY zoo in 2015 from Sydney, Australia. However, climate change and human activities are threatening their population in the wild, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.
