Taronga Zoo has welcomed not one but two new rare baby Penguins

Taronga Zoo welcomes two rare baby Fiordland Penguin chicks.
The 12 and 9-week old baby birds are the result of Taronga’s extensive breeding program.
Members of the public can now view the new additions, ideally during a daily Penguin Keeper Talk.

While the world continues to argue over whether Thailand’s Moo Deng or Melbourne’s Pesto wins the “cute chubby baby” award for 2024 (a much more worthwhile debate than Trump v Kamala), Sydney’s Taronga Zoo has slid into the conversation with their own bundle of dopamine-serving adorableness: two super-rare Fiordland Penguin chicks.

The 12-week and 9-week old penguins are the first-ever Fiordland Penguin chicks to be born in a zoo, validating Taronga’s extensive Fiordland Penguin breeding program. This particular penguin, endemic to New Zealand, is listed as a threatened species with only around 2500 to 3000 breeding pairs globally.

Taronga now has seven Fiordland Penguins for guests to gawk over. This includes four who were found on Australian beaches and a fifth who joined the colony after being treatment for wounds at Wellington Zoo’s Veterinary Hospital. Out of the five, two penguin couples were formed—Munro and Moaraki, and Ed and Dusky—with each producing one of the two new penguin chicks.

These penguin chicks are part of the zoo’s Great South Oceans habitat, sharing this corner of Taronga with seals and pelicans. You can see them on any regular Taronga Zoo visit but it’s wise to head along to Taronga Zoo’s daily Penguin Keeper Talk at 2:40pm to see how these penguin chicks are progressing.