Tyler — A 3-month-old African penguin splashes around in a few inches of water, as his mother waddles up to a plexiglass separator to inspect what’s happening in the backroom outside of the Caldwell Zoo’s penguin exhibit.
A few downy feathers still cling to his backside, but baby Duncan is slowly acclimating himself to the water. His mom, Adasha, loses interest after a few minutes, already used to the adventures the little guy is having, as he gets closer to being able to join the 13 other penguins in the exhibit. Other penguins will occasionally walk over to the window to see what’s happening.
Duncan is the first African Penguin born at the Caldwell Zoo since the exhibit opened in 2006. At almost exactly 6 months old, he will join his mom and dad, Taz, for his debut. The zoo is part of a global effort to preserve the species, which is considered endangered.
The dapper little guy has been in relative isolation because baby penguins can’t swim before they lose all of their downy feathers, bird supervisor Nikki Hartman said. With his new penguin suit growing in, he’s ready to make a splash.
Hartman and her fellow zookeepers have been helping Duncan learn to swim. They began slowly by letting him splash around under a faucet in a concrete enclosure with a ramp on each side and a small wall Duncan prefers to use to get from one side to the other.
As they help him work up the nerve to swim over several weeks, the zookeepers slowly added more water. Once the water got to about 6 inches deep, Duncan began letting himself fall over.
“It’s really amazing,” Hartman said. “It’s instinctual, so to know he picked up on it and enjoys the water is a really cool experience.”
In their natural habitat the penguins are found on the beach. One parent will swim out to cold water currents to fish while the other watches the nest. Eventually the baby penguin will make its way to the water and learn to swim on its own.
Hartman said the species faces a lot of challenges in the wild because of habitat destruction, predation, including from feral cats, and climate change, which has caused their fishing waters to be further out than ever before.
Due to their endangered status, the zoo has strict protocols it has to follow when breeding penguins, which is why it took so long for them to welcome their first little bundle of joy.
A week before he was set to enter the exhibit, Duncan had become pretty familiar with the water. He was still reluctant to enter when he didn't have to, but once he worked up the nerve to get in, he splashed around chasing his toys, before shifting to his side and flapping awkwardly.
“He’s bathing,” Hartman explained
On Tuesday morning, Hartman will move Duncan into the exhibit, just 10 days shy of him turning 6 months old. The zoo will monitor him throughout the morning, before guests enter, to ensure he’s getting along with the other penguins and that he can figure out how to enter and, more importantly, exit the pool on his own.
It will be a bit of a transition for the little guy, as his preferred method of entering the training pool is just flopping off of the wall into it.
Hartman doesn’t expect Duncan to have any issues with the other penguins. Throughout the day they take turns visiting the plexiglass divider and seeing what their little friend is up to.
In the last few weeks, Duncan gained two friends, Lena and Oscar, both 2-year-old females transferred from another zoo under the species survival plan for African Penguins.
The girls mostly keep to themselves, as Duncan hangs out in his preferred corner of the enclosure.
Duncan will be easy to identify over the next few months. Every African penguin has a unique set of markings, almost like fingerprints for humans. Duncan, having just gained his juvenile feathers, does not yet have visible markings.
