The Mississippi Aquarium has welcomed its first baby penguins. Now you can go see them
In January, the Mississippi Aquarium welcomed two tiny critically endangered penguin hatchlings — the first penguins born in Mississippi. Now, the penguin chicks are chunky, fluffy, and can finally be seen by the public.
The aquarium will be hosting a limited pop-up exhibit — the first of which was on Saturday — for the public to see the two 2-month-old African penguin chicks currently known as Penguin Chick 1 and Penguin Chick 2. The aquarium plans to have the public help name the birds and do a penguin gender reveal at a later date.
A small “playpen” has been set up for the birds inside the aquarium’s Changing Tides building. The chicks will be on exhibit for the public to see Saturdays and Sundays starting March 22 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. through the end of April.
The times and dates are subject to change though, says Christina Lavalle, the aquarium’s curator of bird and ambassador animals. Since the birds are still young, they might have to cancel or adjust times based on how well the birds adapt to the new human attention. Changes will be posted on the aquarium’s social media channels.
The two chicks are a rare sight as African penguins are classified as a critically endangered species with less than 10,000 breeding pairs left in the wild.
“We really want people to have the same connection to these birds that we do, and feel excited about conservation of these animals,” said Nicole Martz, the aquarium’s director of sales and marketing.
A third penguin chick, which was born four weeks ago to parents Halloween and Flop, will eventually be brought to the temporary exhibit once it has gotten a bit bigger and adapted to being transported by kennel.
Visitors can see the penguins as a part of regular admission. Currently, they are the only ones of the aquarium’s African penguin colony that are on exhibit.
The aquarium does, however, offer penguin encounters, which allows visitors to have a hands-on, informational one-on-one with one of the aquarium’s 10 adult African penguins for $59.95 per person. The penguin encounter includes admission and is only offered on weekends.
Currently, the Mississippi Aquarium’s African penguin colony lives offsite at the aquarium’s Aquatic Research Center, which is not open to the public.
According to Martz, the plan is to eventually build a comprehensive penguin exhibit onsite, once funding is secured. The penguin exhibit will be a stand-alone, air-conditioned building that will feature a publicly visible, climate-controlled space for the growing colony, a separate space for the penguin encounters, and a nursery for new chicks.
Martz says the aquarium hopes to have all the funding secured before the end of the year so they can start construction by 2026 and hopefully have the penguins in their new home a year after that.
The aquarium is accepting donations for the care of the chicks and toward the new penguin habitat. According to Martz, donors will receive updates on the penguins and other exclusives.
This story was originally published March 23, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
