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Sunday April 29, 2007

First artificially incubated penguin

By SIRA HABIBU

Dr Afrah Alhana Ahmad Kassim, 27, holding the first penguin to hatch from an artificially incubated egg at UML.
LANGKAWI: The first penguin chick to be hatched from an artificially incubated egg in Malaysia is now 13 days old and growing fatter at the Underwater World Langkawi (UWL).

UWL senior curator Tan Ean Kok said the Black Footed African penguin chick weighed just 72gm when it was hatched. It now weighs a healthy 170gm.

Tan said the success of the breeding programme through incubation would further ensure the survival of the penguins held in captivity.

“Some penguins reject the egg. Some lay two eggs and take more care of the first than the second.

“In such cases, we need to put the eggs in incubators to ensure their survival.

“We tried incubating five eggs last year, but none hatched.

“We were excited when the first chick hatched from the incubator on April 17 this year,” he said,

Tan said that, so far, 10 penguin chicks had hatched at UWL. The first hatched on March 17 last year while the youngest hatched on April 17 this year.

“But so far, only the Black Footed African penguins have produced offspring.

(From left) UWL aquarium keeper Azmi Abu Hassan Shaari, 27, penguin keeper Lim Chuin Siew, 24, and UMT trainee Nordiana Noraini treating the year old penguins to fish cakes to mark.
“Some of the Rockhopper penguins have started mating. They have so far laid two eggs. But none survived,” he said, adding that there were 17 Blackfooted African penguins and 19 Rockhopper penguins at UWL.

Veterinarian Dr Syahar Amira Ghani said UWL was expecting two more chicks within the next week or two.

UWL held a birthday party for the eight Blackfooted African penguins that were hatched last year.

The one-year-old chicks were treated to a sumptuous spread of “fish cake” yesterday.

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