Penguin chicks hatched in Japan lab
Print Edition
A Japanese aquarium said yesterday it had hatched two Humboldt penguin chicks after using artificial insemination, the first time the technique has been successfully deployed for the vulnerable species.
The two chicks were born early April after frozen then thawed sperm from a male penguin was used to inseminate a female penguin at the Shimonoseki Marine Science Museum in Yamaguchi prefecture in western Japan.
“I was speechless when the babies were born safely thanks to the success of the artificial insemination,” Teppei Kushimoto, who is in charge of the penguins at the aquarium, said.
The aquarium said it had taken four years of experiments for scientists to figure out how to collect, freeze, and correctly time the penguins’ artificial insemination.
The aquarium said it hoped the development could help safeguard the rare flightless birds, which are designated as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The Humboldt penguin, which breeds in coastal Peru and Chile, is at risk due to pollution, especially oil spills, over-fishing of the species they eat, and problems with the birds becoming entangled in fishing nets.
The Japanese breakthrough comes nearly two years after SeaWorld in San Diego said it had hatched a Magellanic penguin — not an IUCN threatened species — using artificial insemination with frozen then thawed semen.
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