Photo: Courtesy of the New England Aquarium
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — A three-month-old African penguin is joining its flock at the New England Aquarium as part of a program to keep her endangered species' alive in captivity, because out in the wild, the days are numbered for African penguins.
Weighing just over six and a half pounds, "Bray" splashed into the water Wednesday morning to join 40 other African penguins in the colony, including her 41-year-old great grandmother.
Senior penguin trainer Brendan Dugan told WBZ's Carl Stevens that Bray was introduced to the colony when her waterproof feathers came in.
"African penguins have diminished over the past century— about 97 percent. Bray hatched here March 23, her parents, Malgas II and Demersus III, raised her for the first 35 days," Dugan said.
Photo: Courtesy of the New England Aquarium
Bray comes as part of the SAFE program which stands for "saving animals from extinction." According to aquarium staff, the latest addition to the African penguin colony got her name "Bray" from the donkey-like vocals that her species has.
"By keeping a good genetic variability in human care, if they do go extinct, which they are projected to go functionally extinct in the year 2035," Dugan said.
WBZ's Carl Stevens (@carlwbz) reports.
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