Storyful
An Atlantic puffin chick that hatched this summer was “fully integrated” with the rest of the colony at New York City’s Central Park Zoo by December 6, caretakers said.The chick, called a puffling, hatched on August 11 and weighed only 2 ounces at birth, the zoo said. As of December, the puffling had joined 11 adult Atlantic puffins in the Polar Zone exhibit at the Manhattan zoo, and weighs “more than 11 ounces.”Footage shows the puffling days after birth, compared to 10 weeks later, when he had reached adult size and had joined other Atlantic puffins, harbor seals, and penguins in the habitat.“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 zoo said in a press release.The Central Park Zoo puffling is one of only three successfully hatched this year across seven Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) accredited institutions, the zoo said.The Atlantic puffin is listed as a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Credit: ©WCS via Storyful
