'Surprise' at Newquay Zoo as adorable chick hatches to 'one of world's oldest penguins'

SWNS reporter & Annette Belcher

23 June 2024 at 1:03 am·1-min read

A chick has hatched at a popular Cornwall zoo to one of the world's oldest penguins. Great-great-great grandmother Windy, aged 30, and her toyboy partner Nacho, aged just four, have welcomed their new arrival at Newquay Zoo.

The Humboldt penguin surprised everyone at the zoo when she paired up with young male last breeding season. But the 26-year age gap doesn’t seem to have been an obstacle as this year the couple has produced a healthy young chick.

While four-year-old Nacho is a first-time father, Windy first became a mother in 1999 and has produced 23 offspring since then. Due to the success of her descendants through the European breeding programme in 2023, she claimed the title of great-great-great grandmother to a chick hatched in Schwerin Zoo, Germany.

Even more remarkable about this pairing is that Windy might be one of the oldest penguin parents in the world. Penguins – including Humboldt penguins – usually only live to around 30-years-old in captivity.

But Windy is proving to be as capable a mother as ever to her latest chick. Dan Trevelyan, senior bird keeper at Newquay Zoo, said: “Windy was paired up with male penguin, Jet, for a long time, and produced more than 20 chicks together.

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''When Windy lost her partner, we didn’t necessarily expect her to pair up with another penguin, but Nacho started courting Windy last year, and the two have been devoted to each other ever since. They had a clutch of eggs last spring, but neither of them were successful, so we are really happy that the pair have had a healthy chick this breeding season.”

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