National Aviary reveals sexes of African penguin chicks
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- When you think of a gender reveal, what comes to mind is a baby boy or girl, but on Thursday, the National Aviary hosted one for a pair of tuxedo-wearing chicks.
For three months, two black-and-white suited chicks waddled around, their sexes unknown, until now. The National Aviary revealed they're a boy and a girl.
Like many birds, African penguins look the same, so they had to wait to do DNA tests.
"When the chicks are hatched, they only have little down feathers, and when they start to develop adult feathers, that's when we can do the test," said Dr. Pilar Fish, the senior director of zoological advancement and avian medicine.
She said as hatchlings each weighed around 7 ounces, about the size of a plum. Within three months, they increased in size by about 15 times.
They conducted the latest check-up and weigh-in ahead of the reveal. For the reveal, they got some help from a sloth named Valentino, who painted penguin silhouettes in blue and pink.
Chris Gaus with the aviary said they've hatched 14 chicks, including these two since 2012, globally leading conservation efforts to save the endangered species from extinction.
"They've lost close to 99% of their wild population and could be extinct in the wild in the next 10 to 15 years," Gaus said.
It's something that makes these chicks all the more important to keep the species alive.
"Every chick that's hatched here is really important for the species," Gaus said.
The chicks are expected to join the habitat with the rest of the African penguins in early spring when they're about five months old.