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Penguin Gains Surrogate Moms

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The Associated Press

Published: May 21, 2008

BOSTON - Like many moms of newborns, Caitlin Hume still has plenty of work to do when she gets home. There's the herring-and-krill formula to prepare, followed by a little peeping and playtime, then bed.

For the past few weeks, Hume and fellow New England Aquarium biologist Heather Urquhart have been mothering a 22-ounce Little Blue Penguin that was rejected by its parents after a difficult hatching.

Each night, the two surrogate moms delicately pack the baby - covered in soft, gray-blue down - into a plastic cooler. Inside, the bird rests comfortably, swaddled in a white towel for the car ride home, oblivious to Boston's rush-hour traffic.

Once home, the still-unnamed chick - which turned 37 days old on Tuesday - waits in the guest room until Hume prepares a baby formula of herring fillet and shrimp-like krill that goes into a blender and is heated to about 98 degrees. The pungent meal, resembling a chocolate shake, is fed to the penguin four times a day using a syringe with a special tip.

The Little Blue Penguin species, which is native to Australia and New Zealand, is among three that are part of the New England Aquarium's penguin habitat. The other two include the African, native to South Africa, and the Rockhopper, which is found principally along Argentina and the Falkland Islands.

Andrea Desjardins, a penguin biologist who works at the aquarium, said the penguin team noticed an egg was about a week overdue from its normal 38-day term. They found the chick inside was still developing, so they essentially induced the chick to hatch by chipping away tiny bits of shell, allowing the penguin to eventually break through.

When the biologists tried to give the bird back to his parents to raise it normally, they rejected the baby.

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