Puffling Learns To Swim | The Zoo

[Music] five days old and feisty already yeah even two days ago it was trying to take the fish on its own that's really remarkable how fast they grown yeah the egg had pipped right before my weekend and then i woke up the next morning and got a text in the morning uh that we had a puffin chick so it hatched overnight [Music] so cute we've been trying to have atlantic pulp and chicks for the last eight years so it's very exciting that this is our first chick the puffin chick is currently living in an incubator in our incubation room so we made impromptu burrow out of some towels and it seems quite happy in there like a good puffin staying in the barrel mm-hmm all right little bud all right let's see how much you weigh 53.8 there are really only a few zoos in the united states right now working with atlantic puffins so because hatches are rare we've really chosen to hand rear these chicks to be able to monitor that development very carefully and maximize the opportunity of successful breeding [Music] i never get tired of new life um that's one of the exciting things about what we get to do where's my food are you ready oh yeah i gotta make your food first you can go back in there sorry buddy it's a puffin with a new york attitude so we're giving it basically the body of the fish we're cutting off the head and the tail and any fins when they're first hedged out they have a little bit more of a difficult time digesting the heads and the tails but as they grow they can handle more of it oh he's like cool all right are you gonna feed me how's it look looks pretty good it looks pretty good all right little bud back in the borough y'all come out to eat come on oh we got food for you oh look at the good job look at you oh you're even taking them by yourself now completely that's great no hand feeding necessary you want the last piece can you get it didn't quite get it right yeah you want to try that again try to take it that way and eat the whole dish i'll take this there you go good job bud wow that was fast someone's growing oh that one came back out too much too much all right buddy i'm gonna steal that one back from him everything else was consumed i'll call that good for now so right now the puffin chick has down feathers let's keep it nice and warm and in about four weeks they'll start to molt into the adult feathers which are their waterproofing feathers and we would actually start offering it pool time so that it can get used to swimming and then eventually go on to exhibit with all the others all right little bud all right nighty night yep hi little one look at you big much more mature face now right we learn the gender of the puffin chick and it's a female and now it's old enough to start to swim look at you stretching once she does start swimming those downy feathers are really going to come right off [Music] our chick is 39 days old today it's been a lot of fun watching her grow up you know she's really starting to look like an adult she's getting some weight on her face now her bill's getting longer so she's almost full grown she looks great she's got that great puff and face she's making cute little puppet noises she's got almost all of her adult feathers now so she's waterproof now so we're going to put her in the water and uh if she does well we'll do more and more swim times until we leave her with a pool full time puffins spend a lot of time in the water you know they'll go out to sea for months on end and here on exhibit we have a pretty deep pool for the puffins so obviously we need to make sure that she's comfortable swimming before we put her on exhibit i'll let her swim yes all right here you go keep going in the water in the wild the atlantic puffins nest along cliffs above the sea so obviously a puffling um that's fledging would have to just kind of get thrown into the ocean there you go we're gonna offer a nice small little pool you know that's nice and calm it's a little bit of an easier transition than she would have in the wild now i need my fingers i'm going to figure in the water oh what's that get it give me no mug shoes it might just take a little while it's new to her yeah i wonder what she'd do like if you fed her near the water could try it i'm in for a silver side [Music] daddy come on oh killing come on go in almost how do you get it out of the water go get it there you go go for a swim keep going commit commit she's just not 100 sure but she's checking it out she had her feet in most of her leg was in all right let me put in a ramp to see if maybe she'll just like walk down on the the matting oh she likes it she's going down on the matting she just needed some soft matting in her pool yeah she's like the princess of the princess [Music] go for a swim oh there we go she swim she got scared good job we're getting bolder oh now we're swimming oh you figured it out yes she's got it it's so cute this is our first time having an atlantic puffin chick so basically every new step is brand new for all of us so it's it's very exciting you know it's her first time ever experiencing this it's pretty amazing are you tuckered out have you had enough i think we should call it yeah she's give her a baby there you you take a nap [Music] she's a little over three months old now she's been living in holding and i think she's ready to go on exhibit [Music] we'll be back i'm soaping the window right now so that the pup and chick knows where the glass is once the phonics are you trying to eat it all right we're gonna get the chick and we're gonna bring it on to exhibit for the first time hi cutie hi come here the chick looks really good it's definitely mature enough to be released in with the group you good it got quite chunky can go on exhibit have a nice new home new puffin friends oh i know the effort to get to this point is a few years in the making catching baby birds is it's always an exciting time here but to have a new species for the first time it's extra special all right little one look at this i know it's so exciting all right are you ready all right off you go it's my turn oh stretch in the wings gonna explore go explore you have this whole big exhibit this is all new and exciting that's true she's over by the other puffins she doesn't seem nervous or afraid of them which is good she's pretty confident all right we're gonna head out and give them some space keep an eye on them just to make sure that you'll get in and out of the water without any issues make sure there's no aggression from any of the other puffins although it seems pretty calm [Music] oh nice oh god hey there you are hey now this is probably a silly question but you're confident she can get out of the water if she goes in she should be okay we've had puffins here at the central park zoo since it opened but we've never hatched an atlantic pup and chick we need to sustain populations so we have puffins to exhibit in the future so we can have exchange of animals between other zoos and aquariums so it is really important to have a successful program thank you michael williams oh poor girl i struggle now you

Channel: Animal Planet

Views: 88,092

Keywords: animal planet, animal planet us, animal planet full episodes, the zoo, animal planet the zoo, the zoo puffin, puffins, puffin bird, puffin chick, puffin baby, puffin chick learning to swim, puffin animal planet, puffin youngling

Id: mGUgeHPbbhE

Length: 9min 0sec (540 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 14 2020