Help Name Baby Penguin Chick In Syracuse

Rosamond Gifford Zoo is asking for your help in naming its newest addition to the Humboldt Penguins.

The penguin team has selected five potential names for the chick that reflect Humboldt penguins’ native habitat, Chile and Peru's Pacific coast.

The candidates and their meanings are:

• Opal (precious stone)
• Apichu (“Sweet potato”)
• Inti (Inca sun god/ Sunshine)
• Enelda (“Dill”)
• Pepita (“Pumpkinseed”)

To cast your vote, please click HERE and complete the online form. Voting will be open until noon on Friday, April 2. You can vote as many times as you want. The zoo will announce the name of the chick later that day.

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This little Penguin Chick is growing fast. At 4 days old, it weighed 6 ounces, and in just 2 short months, she's grown to 7.7 pounds. Bird Manager April Zimpel says the chick is healthy and developing well and will soon be ready to receive its daily diet of fish from the hands of keepers just like the rest of the 25-bird colony.

Rosemond Giffard Zoo said this chick is among more than 50 to hatch at the zoo since it established its colony of Humboldt penguins in 2006.

The zoo has sent many birds to other accredited zoos and aquariums in the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) as part of the Species Survival Plan for this species, whose wild population is listed as vulnerable in their habitat in South America. [Rosemond Giffard Zoo]

According to the press release, the new chick has a non-traditional family that’s not unusual at the zoo. It is the offspring of one penguin pair, Juan and Rosalita, and Luis and Calypso's foster chick.

Since biological parents Juan and Rosie have a history of inadvertently breaking their eggs, the penguin team decided to give one of their eggs to another pair, Luis and Calypso, who are not recommended to breed; however, they incubated the egg as if it were their own and have fed and cared for the chick since it hatched.

“They built an amazing nest this year,” Zimpel said. “It was their first time fostering, and they really knocked it out of the park.”

Keep it tuned as we'll announce the winning name on Friday, April 2.