An African penguin chick made its grand debut at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs earlier this month, hatching from its egg on April 8.
“Waddle we do with all this cuteness?” zoo officials wrote in an announcing the chick’s arrival.
At 22 days old, the zoo’s newest baby weighs just over two pounds, according to the news release. The chick weighed only one-fifth of a pound when it first hatched.
Visitors can spot — or hear — the chick in the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s penguin building in Water’s Edge Africa.
“While it’s usually snuggled in the nest, guests might see it wriggle out, or hear it peeping,” zoo officials said.
The chick is “an important ambassador” for African penguins, which were officially listed as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2024, zoo officials said in a news release.
Less than 10,000 breeding pairs of African penguins remain in the wild. If current trends continue, these charismatic birds could be extinct in the wild by 2035, zoo officials said.
Since 2010, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo guests and members have contributed more than $159,675 to the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds in support of African penguin conservation, zoo officials said in the release.
The Colorado Springs zoo also joined the program for the African Penguin in 2020.
“Every visit to CMZoo is conservation in action,” officials stated in the release. “Guests visiting CMZoo can see African penguins up close, including this new chick, knowing their visit helps support a future for this species in the wild.”
