Safari park welcomes two newly hatched penguin chicks
Safari park staff are 'absolutely thrilled' to have welcomed two newly hatched penguin chicks into the world.
Blair Drummond Safari Park in Stirling said the Humboldt penguins hatched in April, after a 40-day incubation period, and are now being cared for by park keepers and their parents.
They are living inside specially made nest boxes, meaning park visitors will not yet be able to see them, but park officials said they are growing quickly and are in good health.
The first chick hatched on April 25 to parents Penny and Izzy, with the second just a few days later on April 29 to parents Pete and Bertie.
Humboldt penguins are native to South America and are classed as vulnerable, with around 24,000 mature penguins left in the wild.
Penguin chicks can weigh as little as 80 grams and teams regularly check their weight to ensure they are developing at the appropriate speed.
Once they moult their grey baby feathers, they begin to venture outside and join the rest of the colony.
Jen Carpenter, penguin team leader at Blair Drummond Safari Park, said: 'We're absolutely thrilled to welcome this year's chicks.
'It's always a joy to see the hard work of our penguin pairs pay off, and these little ones are getting the very best start to life.
'Every successful hatch is a step forward for the species, and we're proud to play our part.
'We can't wait to share their journey as they grow and eventually waddle out to meet the rest of the colony.'
Humboldt penguins are classed as vulnerable in the wild, with populations declining due to habitat loss, overfishing, and climate change.
The chicks have not been named yet, but followers can keep an eye on the Park's social media channels for the big name reveal, plus plenty of behind-the-scenes updates and milestones.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Wild birds: Daera 'possibly failed' to comply with environmental law
The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) may have failed to comply with environmental law, according to a new is in relation to special protection areas for at-risk wild birds, such as puffins, whooper swans and light-bellied Brent investigation from the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) had been previously launched in March 2024, following potential failures to implement recommendations given by a conservation body. Daera said it welcomes the OEP's work and will be "considering the investigation findings", whilst recognising "that there is much more to do to protect our natural environment and the habitats that wild birds and other wildlife need to survive and thrive". The OEP has issued Daera with a notice, which they must respond to within two months. A full response will be delivered by the deadline of 5 August Helen Venn, the OEP chief regulatory officer has said that the government has a legal obligation to maintain populations of wild birds and ensure they have enough suitable Venn said "our investigation has found what we believe to be possible failures to comply with environmental law by DAERA relating to the protection of wild birds".She noted the decline in wild birds across Northern Ireland, adding that recent studies have placed "a quarter of birds found on the island of Ireland on the Birds of Conservation Concern Red List". The investigation in March 2024 looked into failures to implement recommendations given by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and other conservation public bodies on the classification and adaptation of Special Protection Areas (SPAs) A parallel investigation is looking at the same issues relating to England, and information notices have also been issued to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Secretary of State (SoS) and Natural England. What is the OEP? The Office for Environmental Protection, external is a new environmental governance body, which holds the government and other public authorities in England and Northern Ireland to account on their environmental protection and also covers reserved UK-wide advises the government and Northern Ireland Assembly on any changes to environmental has statutory powers to investigate and enforces compliance with environmental law where enforcement can include legal action if unresolved through compliance with recommendations.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Scottish Borders Council warns of more bin collection disruption
Residents in the Scottish Borders face a second week of disruption to their waste and recycling collection following an incident which resulted in the injury of a refuse worker. The man was treated in hospital after becoming tangled in a bungee cord attached to a household wheelie bin on a rural route last month. Since then the automatic lifting mechanisms on all bin lorries have been suspended and are being operated manually, in the interests of staff safety. Scottish Borders Council has said it will make no household food waste collections this week and asked residents to put food waste in their general bin. The move to suspend the use of the automated lifting mechanisms is slowing the speed at which all types of domestic waste can be collected. It is causing disruption to operations and resulting in missed collections. No new bulky uplift bookings are being taken before July. A council spokesperson confirmed domestic food waste collections were suspended between 9 June and 13 June. "This is due to the knock-on effects of the service-wide disruption and the prioritisation of general waste and recycling collections," they said."As we are not sure how long this disruption will continue, if you do not have enough space in your food waste bin, we ask that you place any food waste into your general waste bin until further notice."We are very sorry for this inconvenience. If your general waste or recycling bin is not collected as scheduled, please leave it presented as we will make every effort to return for it."If we have not returned by the Sunday, please take your bin back in and present it again on your next scheduled collection day."They also asked residents to remove bungee cords, ropes, chains and any other type of restraint from their wheelie bins on collection days."Remaining restraints will be removed by our staff if possible, but if they cannot be removed we will not be able to collect the bin," they added. "Please note that we may not be able to guarantee the return of any restraints removed by our staff."The council spokesperson added: "We ask for your continued patience and cooperation while we work hard to resolve this matter." Story supplied by Local Democracy Reporting Service reporter Paul Kelly
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
UK may have failed to protect wild birds with environmental laws, watchdog finds
The government may have failed to protect critical wild bird populations by neglecting to implement environmental law properly, the environmental watchdog has found. Wild bird populations are declining across the UK. Under the EU certain parts of Britain's landscape were designated specially protected conservation zones when the UK was still a member state. They include estuaries, coastal areas and peatlands, as well as wetland areas where wading birds live, and places birds of prey prefer to nest. However, according to the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), the government has failed to ensure adequate protections for these areas and as a result, wild bird populations are declining. Concerningly, ministers are currently passing the planning and infrastructure bill, which would deregulate these specially protected areas and would put more than 5,000 of England's most sensitive, rare and protected natural habitats at high risk of development, according to a Guardian analysis. The OEP was set up after Brexit to hold the government to account under the Environment Act 2021, which was passed to replace EU law. It has sent information notices to the government laying out the issues and giving it two months to respond. Helen Venn, chief regulatory officer for the OEP, said: 'Government has a legal obligation to maintain populations of wild birds and ensure they have enough suitable habitat. One way in which they do this is through special protection areas, which are legally designated sites that protect rare and threatened wild birds.' She added that the government appeared not to be meeting its legally binding plans and targets to halt and reverse the decline of species abundance. Recent government data shows that overall, bird species have declined in number UK-wide by 2% and in England by 7% in the five years since 2018. Faring the worst are farmland birds, which have declined in number severely – by about 61% over the long term (since 1970) and 9% in the short term (the five years between 2018 and 2023) – and woodland birds, whose numbers have fallen by about 35% over the long term and 10% in the short term. 'However, wild bird populations continue to decline across England … Our investigation has found what we believe to be possible failures to comply with environmental law relating to the protection of wild birds and we have therefore decided to move to the next step in our enforcement process, which is to issue information notices setting out our findings.' Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion A Defra spokesperson said: 'Britain is a proud nation of nature lovers, and we are taking bold action to reverse decades of decline. This includes £13m to improve our protected sites and better strategic approaches to restore native species and habitats. 'We will continue to work constructively with the OEP as they take forward this investigation.'
