NATION : Heat’s On: Penguins Can’t Wait
Penguin chicks were cheeping by the dozen at Miami International Airport today after they unexpectedly pecked their way out of their shells after a hot layover in Chile.
The incubators carrying 101 eggs from Antarctica to Britain sat out in the sun in Santiago and heated up to 114 degrees, much higher than the 96.5-degree temperature needed to keep them stable.
By Wednesday afternoon, 14 king penguins had hatched, said Richard Hill, whose family runs the Birdland sanctuary in Gloucestershire, England.
“I expect we’ll get up to 28, maybe 30,” Hill said while waiting at the airport for a Pan Am flight to London.
Hill has made dozens of trips with penguin eggs before, but the only other hatchlings popped out after a two-week travel delay, he said.
The 3-inch-tall wingless chicks have rubbery gray-black skin, pot bellies and fuzzy heads. Adults grow to a height of 3 feet.
Hill normally has a 72% success rate on his egg trips but said he isn’t sure what the prospects will be for the overheated eggs and new hatchlings.
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