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15 penguin chicks ready to join Polar Adventure

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Jennifer Cheng

Ocean Park has successfully bred 15 healthy penguin chicks from all of the fertilised eggs that have hatched.

The theme park now has 74 penguins ready to meet the public when its Polar Adventure opens, scheduled for between July and September.

This is the second five-month breeding season for the chicks, with the pilot scheme carried out in 2010, which was not as successful.

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At that time, only two eggs hatched and one chick died five weeks later. The chicks from the latest batch are now almost three months old.

Twenty-eight eggs were laid, but 13 did not hatch because they were not fertilised, which occurred naturally. One of the 13 unfertilised eggs was from a king penguin, the second largest of the species.

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When Ocean Park handlers noticed that some of the adult penguins were not caring for their offspring adequately, five of the chicks were removed and hand-reared to ensure their survival.

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