Baby Penguins Rule NEAQ

There's nothing better than celebrating an animal birth. Earlier this month NEAQ researchers were published for observing a right whale birth.

Now the NEAQ penguin team is in the news for the long hours they put in with one of the world's only Little Blue Penguin captive breeding programs. The Aquarium is one of a handful of institutions that has little blue penguins, and the population is growing thanks to a comprehensive breeding program, that now features home care for rejected baby penguins.

In a really cool slide show, the AP reports on biologists' 24-hour care feeding a rapidly growing Little Blue. It eats 50% of its body weight every day! Better yet, it breaks those meals into 10% of its body weight 5 times a day, including overnight intervals that require the penguin to go home with the caretakers in a carefully packed cooler.