A 54-day-old African penguin chick born at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in December — the first in the zoo’s history to live past 10 days — died on Saturday.
The chick, Penny, was hatched on Dec. 13 and had grown to more than four pounds. The zoo say she was nearly the size of an adult penguin.
A post-mortem exam of the penguin didn’t show any obvious cause of her death and the zoo says it is awaiting further tests to learn more about why she died.
“Everyone here is devastated by the loss,” Bob Chastain, chief executive office and president of the zoo, said in a statement. “When you pour your heart into something that fragile, sometimes your heart gets broken. Our job is to begin again with new information, new partnerships and new skills. We accomplished something significant when we had a healthy chick.”
He added: “We witnessed a miracle when she set a record, and we were captivated by seeing her transform from a tiny chick into a sub-adult.”
The zoo says raising an African penguin chick to such a relatively late age was new territory for its staff, who had been consulting with experts around the country. Penny was the first chick at the zoo to live past 10 days.
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo says it is in the process of building a new exhibit for African penguins, which it hopes will improve the health of its flock and viability of future chicks.
