Displaying items by tag: penguin’s rock gallery
Rock on: Penguins begin nesting at Tennessee Aquarium
Gentoo penguin Carla selects a rock for her nest during “Rock Day,” which begins penguin nesting season at the Tennessee Aquarium. Photo courtesy Tennessee Aquarium
Penguins swing into spring nesting season — with lots of rocks
Doug Strickland is a communications specialist at the Tennessee Aquarium.
CHATTANOOGA — While other birds’ hearts might flutter at the thought of building nests with supple twigs, fluffy fibers, mud or even their own saliva (yes, really), nothing gets the Tennessee Aquarium’s penguins quite as excited as rocks.
Big rocks. Little rocks. Smooth rocks. Rough rocks. Whatever type of rock a bird prefers, their arrival by the bucketful in the Penguins’ Rock gallery signals the official start of penguin nesting season and a flurry of activity that may — flippers crossed — lead to one or more tiny, fluffy chicks this summer. The birds typically begin nesting around April 1.
“These guys have been ready for a couple of weeks as the lights are gradually changing, and the days are getting a little bit longer, so they’ve known that this was coming,” says Assistant Curator Loribeth Lee.
Those steadily lengthening days, courtesy of the Aquarium’s team of systems operators, herald the arrival of spring and trigger biological signals telling the penguins that love is in the air. Nevertheless, it isn’t until the rocks are dumped into inviting piles& that the Gentoo and Macaroni Penguins can get to work building the nests that will help protect their young.
Hai! It’s a summer baby cuteness boom at the Tennessee Aquarium
The Tennessee Aquarium’s Gentoo penguin chick weighs more than 2 kilograms at 28 weeks old. Casey Phillips/Tennessee Aquarium
Baby penguin, endangered turtles and puffer fish are the newest additions to the Tennessee Aquarium
(Casey Phillips is a communications specialist at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga)
As any parent knows, kids tend to do whatever you least expect. In the case of an endangered four-eyed turtle hatchling at the Tennessee Aquarium, however, merely existing was — in itself — a huge surprise.
On July 11, a volunteer was tending an enclosure in a backup area of the River Journey exhibit. This habitat was only supposed to house a female endangered four-eyed turtle (Sacalia quadriocellata, a largely montaine species native to parts of China and Vietnam), but the volunteer soon discovered that the adult turtle wasn’t alone. Perched atop a layer of vegetation was a tiny hatchling that, by all accounts, shouldn’t have been there.
“The adult female hadn’t been with a male in over a year, so we did not check to see if she had laid this year,” says Bill Hughes, the aquarium’s herpetology coordinator. “To say the least, finding an egg, let alone a hatchling, was unexpected.”
Tennessee Aquarium Herpetology Coordinator Bill Hughes holds a recently hatched endangered four-eyed turtle. Casey Phillips/Tennessee Aquarium