Sydney Aquarium welcomes Gentoo penguin chicks

SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium has welcomed new Gentoo penguin chicks. The babies hatched in the aquarium's Sub-Antarctic zone over the past months, with the oldest arriving mid-October and the youngest two weeks ago.

The baby penguins are being closely monitored and weighed daily by a team of penguin carers.

"The way we monitor their chicks is we weigh them each day, at the same time, and that way we can see any development in their weight," Kerrie Dixon, SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium Penguin Supervisor said on Thursday.

"At the moment our youngest chick is about 300 grams and our oldest chick is about two kilos so that happens really fast, in a matter of weeks," Dixon said.

Parents of the new chicks include SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium's famous gay penguin couple, Sphen and Magic, who have adopted and hatched their second egg.

The parents made headlines in 2018 as the aquarium's first Gentoo penguins to successfully incubate and raise a chick, a baby girl named Lara.

Lara took part in this year's breeding season by learning to build a nest and incubate eggs.