Mystic Aquarium

Today was my first day as a pen 10 supervisor, which includes sections A-D. To start, A had 20, B had 10, C had 20 and D had 22 for a total of 72 chicks. B and D were on twice a day formula, while A and C were on once a day formula.

My day started at 7am to begin the BID formula tube feedings for pens B and D. When I entered pen B, there was one little chick that was lying down while the rest of the chicks were huddled together. This chick was rather scrawny, covered in guano and other chicks were picking on it. The chick tubed fine but when I set it down it immediately laid back down and looked rather weak. I let Venessa know and the chick was immediately moved to the “weakie” pen. When I went to feed formula to pen D, I had a very late start because more formula needed to be made. I was behind by an hour just to start the morning off.

While the brunt of my day starts at 8am, an early 7am tube feeding is needed at this point. Today I worked with a fantastic, long-standing volunteer, Jennie. A lot of progress was made with the chicks, and many were moved to different pens depending on their status (which was positive!). Progress is also shown by a number of chicks that have decreased tube feeding formula from two times per day to one time per day.

My hands were quite sore today. I had to bandage up my fingers and wear a dive glove for protection. #600 is still in my pen area and is still a character! There are two resident Rockhopper penguins at SANCCOB (who are quite spoiled) and they get to spend their day wandering about the offices. They're very friendly and beautiful.

We are hand-rearing 415 chicks and they are absolutely beautiful. My first “official” day started this morning at 8am when I worked in pen area three, which houses four sub-pens. To ensure that the chicks are receiving proper nutrition, we started tubing 60ml darrows to each chick, force fed three pilchards, tube fed 60ml water, tube fed 60ml formula, followed by another force feeding of at least three pilchards. There are approximately 80 chicks in pen area three and I think I tubed at least 400 times, making it a long day.

I already have my favorite chick, #600. I think it must be a boy and he's picked up on swallowing the tube a little easier than some and eats pilchards on his own. He’s a very boisterous chick. To keep things organized, we separate each sub-pen in half and sit on one side while we systematically work with each chick to move them to the opposite side (the fed or tubed side). When #600 is on the fed side, he keeps trying to hop back into the unfed side, jumps into the feed buckets and is always under foot. When I grab the syringe and stomach tube he bites my hands....every time! He's got spunk and is very aggressive. The chicks give a good bite, making my hands pretty sore today.

Tracy Camp, primary penguin trainer, recently left for Cape Town, South Africa, to assist with health assessment research on African penguins in collaboration with the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB). During her two-week stay, Tracy will assist researchers with data collection and recording on Dyer, Dassen and Robben Islands and will run samples in their lab.

Tracy's trip kicks off an annual presence for Mystic Aquarium in South Africa. Moving forward, Senior Vice President of Research and Zoological Operations Dr. Tracy Romano and scientist Dr. Tracy Spoon will be conducting long-term research on African penguins with SANCCOB. Through the health assessment and research, these teams hope to find information that will help them better understand the rapid decline of the African penguin population and save this amazing species from extinction.

Keep reading to get Tracy’s firsthand account of the work being done in South Africa to help the African penguin.