Penguin parents of Toga, the stolen baby penguin, had a new baby.

[Pirate Smile]

Awwwwww.

Baby Penguin Is Mini-Celebrity in Britain

By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 9, 2006; Page A13

NEWCHURCH, England -- The blinking baby, covered with soft gray fuzz, weighs less than two pounds. Not yet a month old -- too young to even determine its sex -- it is already a mini-celebrity in Britain, an old hand at television appearances, with a London newspaper running a national competition to choose its name.
That's because the baby penguin is the little sibling of Toga, and everybody here remembers what happened to him.


A penguin was born on Valentine's Day to the same parents as Toga, the 18-inch bird stolen last year from a zoo on the Isle of Wight, England. (By Kevin Sullivan -- The Washington Post)

-snip-
But the sadness at Amazon World lifted on Valentine's Day, when Toga's parents, Oscar and Kyala, produced another chick. The baby cracked its way out of its egg in the same nest where Toga was born, amid an array of plastic slabs painted to look like the shoreline rocks of South Africa.

"After all the tears we had, this was like a breath of fresh air," said Lisa Simpkins, the zoo's penguin handler, stroking the new baby's downy head. Simpkins discovered the new baby fresh from its shell, tucked under its father's wing, when she checked the nest on Valentine's morning. She said that for weeks after Toga disappeared, Oscar and Kyala kept searching the nesting areas in the penguin enclosure, looking for him. It has only been since the new baby's birth that they seem settled again.
"I'm just so glad that mum and dad are back to their old selves," she said.

The new baby has barely ventured out of its dark nest since, and when it does it still has trouble standing up and walking on its feet. Its parents are extremely protective and they bray like donkeys -- the sound that gives them their jackass name -- when anyone comes too close. In a few weeks, when the baby develops feathers, one will be plucked for DNA testing to determine its gender.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/08/AR2006030802272.html

[Maat]

1. What a cutie!

Why would anyone steal a penguin?

[kineneb]

2. Huzzah for the happy family

Penguins good! And baby penguins are especially cute.