New York, December 6, 2024 – An Atlantic puffin chick hatched this summer has now been fully integrated with the rest of the colony in the Central Park Zoo Polar Zone.  

Weighing just 2 ounces at hatching on August 11, the chick, known as a puffling, has joined 11 adult Atlantic puffins in the exhibit. The puffling is now the size of an adult bird but has not fully attained its adult plumage. It currently weighs more than 11 ounces. With black-and-white feathers and a large, multicolored bill, as adults, the Atlantic puffin is often called the clown of the sea. As a hatchling, pufflings have very puffy brown and white downy feathers. The Central Park Zoo is one of seven Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) accredited institutions to exhibit Atlantic puffins. Breeding this species is important to the population's sustainability. The Central Park Zoo puffling is one of only three successfully hatched this year in AZA zoos.

The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) is a species of seabird in the auk family and is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN. It is the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean and occurs across the North Atlantic from Canada to Norway and south to Spain. In the wild, puffins eat many small fish such as capelin, herring, hake, sand eels, plus small crustaceans and marine worms. The pufflings at Central Park Zoo are offered slivered pieces of silversides and capelin until they are ready to swallow whole fish.

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