Saturday, December 22, 2012

Male penguin ate its own chick at Chinese zoo

A penguin has been filmed eating its own, newly-hatched chick in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province.

The bird was caught on surveillance camera first trying to feed the youngster, but it failed.


YouTube link.

Then, it started pecking the chick repeatedly before picking it up and shaking it. Finally, it swallowed the chick whole.

The zookeeper rushed to the hatchery when he saw the father penguin pecking the chick on his monitor, but by the time he got there it was too late. It is not known why the penguin decided to eat the chick.

2 comments:

BoS said...

I'm sure anyone with kids can sympathise.

TimO said...

When the chick would not eat the parent assumed something was wrong with it.
No protein in the wild goes wasted, especially in sub-zero climates.
Nothing unusual.