Baseball legend gives thumbs up to Maryland baby penguin with his name. See chick

Don Sweeney
·2 min read
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An endangered African penguin chick hatched at the Maryland Zoo has a big name to live up to, zoo officials reported.

After a vote by zoo visitors, the adorable baby penguin has been dubbed Ripken after Baltimore Orioles baseball star Cal Ripken Jr., the zoo announced on X, formerly Twitter.

“He’s ready to hit it out of the park with cuteness,” the post read.

Ripken, 63, who retired in 2001 after spending his entire 21-year career with the Orioles, signed off on his namesake with an emoji-filled post including a smiley face, penguin and baseball. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.

Ripken (the penguin) is the second chick hatched this breeding season at the zoo. The first was named Chessie for the Chesapeake Bay, the zoo said in an earlier post.

The Maryland Zoo has the largest colony of endangered African penguins in North America, officials said.

As their name suggests, the penguins are found exclusively along the rocky southwestern coastline of Africa in South Africa and Namibia, the zoo said.

Penguins found in Antarctica are from other species.

In the wild, African penguins spend their days feeding at sea and their nights on shore in large colonies, zoo officials said. They dine on small fish, crustaceans and squid, eating about 1 pound of fish a day.

They are hunted by sharks, seals and sometimes killer whales, the zoo said.

African penguins mate for about a decade or for life, “whichever comes first,” and build nests out of guano because there’s not much else on the rocky coast, the zoo said.

The African penguin population has declined by 90% since the start of the 20th century, zoo officials said.

Human collection of eggs and guano for fertilizer nearly drove them extinct, but even with greater protections the birds are still at risk from ocean pollution and fishing.

More than 1,000 African penguins have hatched at the Maryland Zoo since 1967.

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