Adorable Moment Baby Penguins Take A Peek Outside For The First Time
These images show the adorable moment these baby penguins take their very first steps outside.
The footage was shot at the Shedd Aquarium, which is located in the city of Chicago, in the north-eastern US state of Illinois.
The footage, which has notched up over 1,000 likes on Facebook since it was posted just a few days ago on 7th October, shows the baby penguins, which are Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) which are native to South America, carefully sniffing the air before they take a few hesitant steps outside.
Slowly, their confidence builds, and they begin to explore their surroundings.
The footage then switches to them being in front of a stingray tank in the aquarium as they look left and right, taking in all the new information.
The aquarium shared the footage online and said: "Can you believe how fast Magellanic penguin chicks grow? While they have already gone on a few enrichment field trips around the aquarium, this is the first time they've explored Shedd's great outdoors. On this trip, they waddled by Stingray Touch meet the cownose rays as they swim by."
The aquarium explained: "This video highlights several new additions to the penguin colony at Shedd. Taking the penguins out of their habitat to explore new spaces is part of our welfare program at Shedd Aquarium – engaging their senses, encouraging physical activity and adding variety to each and every day.
"The penguin chicks have begun taking field trips of their own, including this trip to the aquarium’s outdoor Stingray Touch habitat."
Magellanic penguins are named after the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan who spotted the birds in 1520. They can live to the ripe old age of 25 in the wild and 30 years in captivity.
Young majestic penguins often have a blotched pattern on their feet but this tends to fade away as they grow up. They also meet with the same partner for life.
Back in March, penguins from the Shedd Aquarium were spotted on a field trip to a replica set of the hit 1990s TV show Friends in footage that delighted netizens.
The aquarium is home to Magellanic penguins as well as Rockhopper penguins, the latter often being split into three different subspecies that includes the southern rockhopper penguin, the eastern rockhopper penguin and the northern rockhopper penguin.
But the aquarium also said that it is caring for African penguin chicks (Spheniscus demersus) which are listed as endangered on the IUCN's Red List of Endangered Species.
@sheddaquarium/Cz/Joe Golder
