Keepers in Szeged are raising a spectacled penguin chick by hand

Keepers at the Szeged Wildlife Park are hand-raising a spectacled penguin chick that hatched on August 27. Hungary Today, drawing on the Hungarian news agency MTI, reported on November 9, 2026, that both parents had themselves been born at the park. The mother died, and the father could not raise the chick alone, so staff took over. The paper said a chick this age would have been learning to take food from a keeper's hand anyway, which also makes it possible to give medicine.

The next step is a slow introduction to the colony, about a month away, so the chick and the other birds can get used to each other. The first spectacled penguins, also called African penguins, arrived at the park in late 2011 under a European breeding program. The first chick there hatched in 2014, and the group has grown each year since. Downy chicks cannot swim until later feathers are waterproof. The news is this one hand-raised chick. It does not describe how the species is faring on the coast of southern Africa, where the paper notes threats that include oil spills and less food.