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PROGRAMS Adopt Your Fun facts: SHARING the CARE
Favorite Animal Humboldt penguins are named after the
Humboldt Current that flows up the Pacific Visit CZS.org/AnimalAdoption
In each issue, we’ll introduce you to one of the coast of South America from Antarctica. for a complete list of dozens
dozens of animals in our Animal Adoption Program. of adoptable animals.
When you adopt an animal, you are sharing the Humboldt penguins can’t fly through the Animal adoption packages
care—your donation helps provide expert care for air like other birds, but their streamlined, make great gifts and start at $35.
that animal for one year. feathered bodies are built to fly through the They include a personalized
water at 20 to 25 miles an hour. adoption certificate, a 5”x7” color
How Divot got his name: He has a slight photo of the animal, a species
depression, or divot, on his back where his Once a year, all penguin species molt—or lose fact sheet, and a program decal.
feathers do not lay flat. all of their feathers—then grow them back. Some featured animal packages
also include a plush toy.
Arrival at Brookfield Zoo: Divot hatched on Penguins swallow saltwater and a gland For more information, visit the
exhibit at Brookfield Zoo on January 31, 2008, to removes salt from their bodies. website, email your question
parents Batata (mom) and Allegro (dad). But after to sharethecare@CZS.org,
a couple days, he was not gaining enough Most species of penguins, including or call (708) 688-8341.
weight, so he was then hand-reared by his Humboldt penguins, live in warm,
animal care specialists. temperate climates. PHUGoiRlviedRathyfeGeicft!tHMoelmi‘TdibasyetrhAsdehoiSppesta—isoonsnsefaeonprdagGeif2t1
Personality: In the wild, Humboldt penguins Conservation threats: Humboldt penguins
are extremely skittish. But Divot is calm and numbered in the hundreds of thousands in the
curious around people because he was hand- 1800s. An estimated 32,000 of them remain, and
reared. As an Animal Ambassador, Divot has their numbers continue to decline. One reason
greeted guests at the Penguin Encounters and is the loss of habitat and nesting material.
occasionally represents the zoo at events on Most Humboldt penguins live in nest burrows
and off zoo grounds. He voluntarily enters the they dig out from piles of seabird droppings, or
Penguin Encounters room and sometimes guano. When guano was mined and sold as
greets guests by flapping his wings—a gesture fertilizer—a practice that is now regulated—the
penguins normally use to greet other penguins. birds lost protected nesting sites. Today, major
His favorite toy is a stuffed penguin that he loves threats include overfishing which reduces the
to carry around in his mouth, while supervised availability of prey fish, entanglement in fishing
by staff. nets, pollutants, and climate change.
Love life: Divot’s mate is Rosalita. Humboldt What CZS is doing: For more than a decade,
penguins are thought to mate for life. Males Dr. Mike Adkesson, vice president of clinical
and females share in the care of their eggs and medicine for the Chicago Zoological Society,
offspring. Divot and Rosalita both wear white has led a conservation program at Punta San
bands, indicating that they are a pair. (Males are Juan, Peru, a marine protected area and home to
banded on their right wing and females on their Humboldt penguins and other wildlife.
left wing.) They are “SSP royalty”—meaning
they are ranked as a high-priority pairing by the What you can do: Buy fish caught in a
Humboldt penguin Species Survival Plan®. [See sustainable way. For more information, go to
the article about SSP programs in this issue.] Seafoodwatch.org. Also, limit your use of plastics
Divot and Rosalita carry genes that are rare in the which can enter the ocean and injure and kill
population of Humboldt penguins in zoos and marine mammals.
aquariums, which make them very valuable.
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