SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle zoo officials want to thank a young visitor whose sharp eyes helped save a penguin egg that was close to hatching.
The boy was at the Humboldt penguin exhibit at the Woodland Park Zoo when he spotted an egg set a cliff and alerted a zoo keeper. She rushed the egg indoors and relocated it under a pair of foster parents. When she went out to thank the boy, he was already gone.
The egg was one of two that hatched last week, and were the first chicks in the zoo’s penguin breeding season.
Humboldt penguins are an endangered species, with only an estimated 12,000 surviving in the wild.