Zoo Tales

Many of the animals at Colchester Zoo are classified as endangered or vulnerable.  More than 40 species are part of European Endangered Species breeding programmes.

These programmes co-ordinate breeding of animals between European zoos, and oversee any transfers in order to maintain a healthy population.  Then should one of the species become extremely rare in the wild, the possibility of reintroduction could be considered.

Colchester Zoo has a collection of Humboldt's penguin - originally from South America, countries like Chile and Peru.  In the wild the penguins are hunted for their eggs by humans and feral animals, they are also thought to be in decline due to increasing water temperatures and decreasing food supply.

The youngest penguin at the Zoo is four-year-old Malibu, she likes to be treated as the baby and always goes to the keepers to be hand-fed.

The penguins are very hard to sex, you can't really tell by looking at them.  The zoo had to take a blood test and check the DNA.  Visitors at the zoo may find it difficult to tell apart, however, keeper Sara Hanson has no trouble in telling them apart.  The penguins have dots on their bellies, each one has its own marking of dots which never change throughout their life. 

BBC Essex's Renee Hockley-Byam spoke to Conservation Manager Rebecca Perry and keeper Sara Hanson about the Humboldt's.