The officials have constantly been busy clarifying it to the concerned tourists that the Penguins weren't suffering from any skin disease but were shedding feathers as per their annual cycle.
The moulting Humboldt penguins at the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale (VJB) Zoo have been driving officials at the penguin enclosure to their wit's end. The officials have constantly been busy clarifying it to the concerned tourists that the Penguins weren't suffering from any skin disease but were shedding feathers as per their annual cycle.
Penguin feathers play crucial role in keeping them warm and dry, while they are in the cold water and over a period of time due to the ‘wear and tear’ they replace them by undergoing moulting, which occurs annually where all the old feathers are pushed out leaving them featherless and then gradually new coatof feathers is formed, which takes around 15 days time to complete.
Dr Madhumita Kale, Head Veterinarian, incharge of the penguins said that this was the most stressful time for the penguins as they become aggressive and since they have lost feathers they do not enter water and prefer to be alone. “Out of the seven penguins five have completed the entire process. Bubble is going through moulting at the moment while only Olive remains to molt,” informed Kale adding that a lot of eager tourists were questioning about the health status seeing the conditions of the feathers but we explained it to them that it’s a normal cycle in the life of penguins.
Meanwhile Kale explained that successful moulting of penguins is a very good health indicator of the penguins as penguin only moult if its in good health. “There are several factors on which proper moulting depends like their feather condition, hygiene, nutrition and in captive condition even the light scheduling (how much time they spend with and without lights) thus we can confidently say that the penguins are not in any kind of stress and are in good health,” she said.
During the moulting a lot of care and precautions are taken by the penguin keepers, infact they even loose their appetite as while on an average a penguin consumes 800 gms of food during molting each one eats only 300-500 gms. However the penguins also make up for this loss by increasing their fat content by drastically increasing their appetite before going into moult. “Infact that is the best indicator that the penguins will moult. We observed that from July their appetite had increased substantially as every penguin was eating around 1.2kg and thus we knew they will begin molting soon,” stated Kale adding that Bubble whose weight used to be around 3-3.5kg now weighs around 4.5kgs.
Meanwhile an animal welfare activist said that the Byculla zoo has missed a very good opportunity to educate the tourists, “This was the perfect time when the zoo officials should have put up boards and information about the moulting process and educated the tourists but there was no information at all. Sadly penguin enclosure is merely a place to view penguins but not learn anything about them,” said the activist.
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 "Humboldt penguins")
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