King penguins in Europe

vogelcommando

vogelcommando

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
King penguins have a long history in European zoos but even so they are not doing very well. At the 17 collections currently keeping the species every year a small number of young are hatched and reared.
Here we can place all the news, ideas, thought and so on about the species in Europe.
 
Interesting thread !
Firstly, for those who don't know which zoos have King penguins :
ZootierlisteHomepage

I had the occasion to see those beautiful birds in some zoos like Munich/Basel/Zurich/Rotterdam but I had ever be "shocked" by the enclosures :
- Basel/Zurich have indoor areas for them (they can only get out in the winter), but always made of a concrete floor with some rocks, an artificial light and a swimming pool. Munich is a little bit better with true rocks but always not a real natural light ...
- Rotterdam seems a little bit better but it's not a revolution compare to the other one I had seen.

That's why I have a question : should zoos keep King penguins (and the Emperor one)?
Isn't other ways to keep them ? 8 months in a small fridge, 4 months only outside ...

Despite my "sharp" post, I really like those birds and would love to see them in zoos but in better condition, with natural light, big pool, and something different than concrete (why not "pebble" ? I'm not sure of the word :/ )
 
At Antwerp Zoo the second King penguin for 2016 hatched during August after an incubation-period of 57 days.. The egg was exchanged for a dummy egg with the parents and incubated in an incubator. After hatching the young - which got the name "Ra" - was placed back to the parent-birds. This is the 6th young bred at Antwerp.
 
Clem said:
- Basel/Zurich have indoor areas for them (they can only get out in the winter), but always made of a concrete floor with some rocks, an artificial light and a swimming pool.
Click to expand...
In Zurich the birds have now a grass ground also it isn't only artificial light, they actually have some windows on the top. But I need to agree, the enclosure is far from perfect.

We also shouldn't forgett than how smaller the room for one bird, better the birds will breed.
 
Posted this also in another thread ( Historical notes from Rotterdam Zoo [Rotterdam Zoo] ) but think it also fits very well in this thread :

King penguins at Rotterdam :
At the moment Blijdorp has a large colony of King penguins and the species is breeding well at the zoo.
The old Rotterdam Zoo was the first Dutch zoo which could show this species to the public.
Jan. 23 1914 a ship arrived from South Georgia and on board there was a large shipment of animals, most of them going to the zoo of Edinburgh ( among the Elephant seals and Weddell's seals ). Also on board there were 8 King penguins, 4 adults and 4 young ones.
2 adults and 2 young ones were taken of board and brought to the Rotterdam Zoo. At first they did well but after almost one month ( on Feb. 21 ) the first young died, it was just started to molting into adulthoud. Shortly after also the second young and one of the adults died. All 3 these animals were send to the Natural History Museum in Leiden ( now-a-days known as Naturalis ).
Could'nt find information how long the last animal lived but in 1927 6 new animals were obtained.

koningspinguis-1914-rotterdam-zoo-png.451817

The 4 King penguins at Rotterdam Zoo - 1914 ( no copyrights anymore )
 
Excerpt from EAZA Yearbook 2019: The EEP for King penguin decreased a little to 314 birds, although the hatch rate remains good.

Despite intense pressure of the EEP to move birds around the zoos to create more successfull breeding groups in recent decade, it is still not enough and the european population is not self sustaining yet. Which is unfortunate because there would else be a long line of zoos interested to start with this attractive species.
 
On ZTL there are just 2 dutch collections which have kept King peguins :
Artis as being a former keeper
Rotterdam Zoo ( see post # 6 )
There is however a third collection which kept the species :
I found a note that a King penguin from the Falkland Islands was send via Montevideo to the Netherlands and it arrived at Dierenpark Wassenaar in Feb. 1954.
Could'nt find any further information if this was the only one kept at Wassenaar and howlong it was kept at this zoo.
 
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