Penguin chick

Quoting a scientific paper on ‘Artificial incubation and hand rearing of Humboldt penguins’, the BMC statement mentioned a 30-35% mortality rate for chicks that were less than 30 days old, saying the first three months were crucial for survival of the penguin chick.

According to zoo officials, the mortality rate for penguin eggs and chicks was high at 60% due to reasons such as infertility of egg, malpositioning of the chick inside the egg, failure to hatch, chick deformity, inability of parents to feed the chick, yolk sac retention and residual albumin among others.

BMC has been facing flak from animal activists for importing eight Humboldt penguins — three males and five females — from Seoul on July 26 2016, with many reasoning that Mumbai was not a natural habitat for them. One of the penguins died of bacterial infection the same October.

The Humboldt penguins have a life span of about 25 years.

“The penguin chick has high mortality rate but BMC should (also) have been more careful. This is not their natural habitat. They should not have been brought to India in the first place,” said Sunish Sumbramaniam Kunju, secretary of Plant & Animals Welfare Society (PAWS), an NGO.

OFFICIALS SAID THE MORTALITY RATE FOR PENGUIN EGGS AND CHICKS WAS HIGH DUE TO VARIOUS REASONS