Two king King Penguin Tokyo Sea Life Park. This marks the first breeding since August 2019. While the aquarium has previously seen one chick born in 2011, 2013, and 2019, this is the first time that two have been born in the same year.

A newborn King Penguin
Hatching date: Saturday, August 22, 2020
Number of birds: 1
Gender unknown
Both parents: Mother: Urara, 12 years old, born August 24, 2008 Ueno Zoo
Father: Ume, 8 years old, born February 25, 2012 at Adventure World

Hatching date: Saturday, September 12, 2020
Number of birds: 1
Gender unknown
Parents: Mother: Rei, 8 years old, born January 10, 2012 at Adventure World
Father: Sora, 9 years old, born at our facility on August 15, 2011.
*The chick born on September 12th died on October 25th. For more details, please see here.

background

Tokyo Sea Life Park began exhibiting King Penguin in 2010 and successfully bred one penguin each in 2011 and 2013. Furthermore, since receiving "Ume" (male) and "Mikan" (male) from Adventure World (Shirahama-cho, Nishimuro-gun, Wakayama Prefecture) on April 21, 2015, and "Rei" (female) on April 8, 2016, the aquarium has been attempting to breed them with its own penguins. As a result, in August 2019, one chick was born to "Sora" (male), born at the aquarium, and Rei. On June 28th of this year, egg-laying was confirmed between Ume and Urara (female), who was born at Ueno Zoo, and the eggs hatched on August 22nd, 56 days after laying. Ume and Urara have been a pair since last year, and although egg-laying and incubation had been confirmed until then, unfortunately, they had not hatched. Therefore, referring to examples from other species, this time, after the eggs were laid, we replaced them with dummy eggs (eggs made to resemble real ones) and performed "artificial incubation" for the first time at our zoo. After carefully observing the progress, we confirmed beak-pecking (the behavior of chicks pecking at the inside of the egg before hatching) on August 20th, so we returned the eggs to the parents, and they hatched two days later. This is the first breeding season for both Ume and Urara, but both parents have been observed feeding their chicks.

A chick being held by its parent (Photo taken on August 30, 2020)

Left: Ume and Urara's offspring (the parent bird in the photo is the father, Ume) Right: Sora and Rei's offspring (both photos taken on September 20, 2020)
On July 18th, egg-laying was confirmed between Sora and Rei. This is Sora and Rei's second breeding attempt, following last year's. However, Sora did not incubate the eggs, and only Rei did, so artificial incubation was implemented on August 1st. The eggs hatched on September 12th, 57 days after they were laid. However, the hatched chicks were lighter in weight than the other chicks and there were some concerns about their health. Also, Rei, who had been incubating the eggs alone, had become a little thin. Therefore, the hatched chicks are being raised artificially, with humans acting as surrogate parents. As of October 1st, Rei's health is fine. The chicks are also gaining weight steadily and growing up healthy.

Regarding the planned release date
You can watch the chick rearing process on a special monitor installed in the viewing area, but outdoor display will only take place once the chicks have grown large enough. The public viewing date will be announced on Tokyo Sea Life Park website as soon as it is decided.
　*The penguins will be on display in the outdoor exhibit area of the "Penguin Ecology" section starting November 12th (Thursday). Click here for more details.

Current status of animal care at our zoo (as of September 24, 2020)
10 birds (4 males, 4 females, 2 of unknown sex) *This includes chicks that hatched this time.

Domestic breeding situation (as of December 31, 2019)
22 zoos/aquariums, 282 birds (142 males, 110 females, 30 of unknown species)
Source: King Penguin Domestic Pedigree Registry [Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums]

◎Related News
・ The penguins' hot summer (July 15, 2011)
・ We are looking for name suggestions for our king penguin chicks. (September 22, 2011)
・ King penguin "Sora" is growing up healthy and strong. (November 11, 2011)
・ The King Penguin chick, born in September, will be on display from January 11th! We are accepting name suggestions. (January 9, 2014)
・ Two King Penguin are coming from Wakayama. (April 16, 2015)
・ King Penguin chicks are growing up healthy and strong! (August 27, 2019)
・ King Penguin chick has been named "Roi". (December 12, 2019)

(September 24, 2020)
(October 1, 2020: Added information about Rei and Hina's health)
(October 28, 2020: Added information about Hina's death)
(November 7, 2020: Added information about the public release of Hinano)