Penguin party expands with the birth of two chicks at Byculla zoo

Oreo, the Humboldt penguin born on May 1, with a caretaker at the zoo on Wednesday. Pic/Ashish Raje

Away from visitors' glare due to the pandemic, the chilly corner of Byculla zoo spawned two cute stories - the arrival of penguin chicks. One young male, Oreo, was hatched on Maharashtra Day, while the other was born on August 19, said Mayor Kishori Pednekar on Wednesday. But the announcement made the Opposition flipping mad which accused the BMC of keeping it under wraps for too long.

Officials at the Byculla zoo, officially known as Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan, said the newest member of the Humboldt family is yet to be named.

The penguin exhibit until May 1 had seven adult penguins, three males and four females, that were brought in 2016. They are all named after popular cartoon characters - Donald, Daisy, Popeye, Olive, Flipper, Bubble, Mr Molt. While the BMC had got eight penguins from Seoul, one of them, Dory, died of bacterial infection within a few months.

Zoo officials said the pair Donald and Daisy are parents to Oreo. The chick has been completely parent-reared and vets only assisted the parents by feeding them every 2-3 hours. The vets check Oreo's weight every morning which helps them decide whether it needs supplemental feeding.

"Oreo mostly hangs out with female penguin Bubble and roams around the exhibit and has also switched to eating fish like an adult penguin now and doesn't need any special diet," said an official.

Sharing more on Oreo, the official said, "Oreo is in his juvenile coat and will undergo moulting into his adult coat at about 1 year. Moulting is very stressful for young penguins and thus we are taking utmost care of these penguins at the exhibit and the zoo being shut for visitors has also helped them."

Molt and Flipper are parents to the other chick and are looking after it. The zoo authorities are yet to determine the sex of the chick. A civic official said the young ones are vulnerable to diseases up to 3 months and they are taking its utmost care.

Mayor Pednekar, said, "It is happy news that there are two chicks that the zoo has welcomed and a team of vets and experts are monitoring their well-being. Oreo has even started to hang out with the others and is also eating fish like the other adults."

Molt had mated with Flipper in 2018 as well and the first penguin was born in India on the Independence Day of that year but it died within a week.

Opposition upset

While the news of the birth of the penguin chicks will cheer the city, the Opposition is upset that the civic administration took too long to announce it. Sources said not many were aware of this development except for a few top officials. Though the mayor was informed a few days ago, it was her decision to reveal it on Wednesday, they said.

Prabhakar Shinde, BJP's group leader in BMC, said, "What is the need to hide such good news from the citizens and elected representatives from whom the civic body is collecting revenue to maintain these birds. Were the corporation and the mayor looking for an auspicious day to announce what we should have known in May itself?"

Opposition leader and Congress corporator Ravi Raja said, "It is very happy news but it has also revealed the functioning of the administration and how they run things on their own whims and fancies. I came to know about this only today through the press conference."

Just recently, a controversy had broken out over the upkeep of the penguins, with the BJP wondering why the BMC is spending R15 crore on it. The corporation had
justified the expenses saying the birds had brought in revenue to the civic body.

Zoo Director Sanjay Tripathi said, "We wanted to ensure that the penguin chicks are healthy and looked after properly and even now we are closely monitoring them."