At a little over 12 inches tall and weighing just two pounds, the Santa Barbara Zoo's three new penguin chicks are already a handful.
"Girl, girl, boy, and these two are siblings," explained Rachel Ritchason, Santa Barbara Zoo Director of Animal Care.
After six years of no chicks at the zoo, some of the parents were a little rusty.
"One of the chicks that hatched, their parents hadn't quite gotten the hang of feeding. First-time parents, first chick in the habitat here, and we had to step in and we did help feed that chick for about four or five days. And then, all of a sudden, the parents were like, oh, that's what you want to do," Ritchason said.
After that, the chicks stayed in the nests until last week, when they started fish school.
"So they're learning how to eat fish from us instead of their parents and then, they are going to learn how to swim," Ritchason said.
The chicks are still very fragile and will continue to get care behind the scenes for another four to six weeks.
"Once they have proven to us that they know how to handle themselves in a pool — they can dive, they can spin, they can turn, do pretty much everything a penguin is supposed to do — we'll start slowly bringing, reintroducing them back as adult members of the group," explained Dana Roberson, Santa Barbara Zoo Senior Zookeeper.
Zoo visitor Zoe Brazos came to see the adult penguins and she was happy to get an up-close experience.
"This one was super playful when I came up to the tank and it's super cool to see them up close," Brazos said.
Humboldt penguins are on the vulnerable species list due to overfishing and guano harvesting in nesting areas, so zoo staff want to give them every chance to survive as part of their AZA Humboldt Penguin Species Survival Plan.
"There is always the chance that chicks won’t survive, even with our help," Roberson said.
So far, the chicks are thriving, which is essential to the survival of the species.
"These Humboldt penguin chicks play a vital role in the sustainability of the species in human care so that my son's kids can come to the zoo and explore what Humboldt penguins are and why they're so important to the environment where they live," Ritchason said.
The new penguins will hopefully make their public appearance in around six weeks.
