A SEA life centre in the region has heard the pitter patter of tiny feet as staff welcomed the first new baby penguin of the year.

The chick, which has hatched Sea Life Scarborough, has been hand reared by three of the aquarium’s aquarists.

The three ‘dads’ knew exactly how to care for the little one after the decision was taken to hand rear the chick.

One of the penguin fathers, Josh Saunders, said: “We always leave the parents to it to begin with and monitor the baby’s weight after each feed to see that it’s gaining weight.

“Gonzo and Pinky are the parents and it was their first chick together after Gonzo and Kev swapped females earlier in the year.

“They were feeding the chick but were also focussing a lot on a second egg which turned out to be infertile so the chick wasn’t gaining enough weight quick enough and we needed to intervene.”

Sea Life Scarborough is part of a European Breeding programme for the Humboldt penguin, an endangered species in its native Chile and Peru.

The animal care team at the attraction have years of experience breeding and hand rearing penguin chicks and 2017 saw a record breaking season with the successful breeding of three new males – two of which moved to Sea Life Hunstanton earlier this year.

James Cox, the second penguin dad, sayid: “The three of us have been taking it in turns to care for the new baby. When it was very small we kept it in a special brooder to keep warm and made a special fish soup to mimic the regurgitation that adult birds use to feed their babies.

“As it has grown bigger we can now feed it small fish and once all the adult feathers grown through in about a month we can start to reintroduce the new arrival to the rest of the colony.”

Andy Jayes, the final penguin dad, added: “We still don’t know if the chick is male or female. We have to wait until the adult feathers grow through and we can send one off for DNA analysis. We’ve had only boys the past few years so a girl would be a nice change.

“We have a few more eggs under parents at the moment so time will tell whether or not they’re fertile and we can beat last year’s record.”

The new chick will join the centre’s other 20 penguins at their home Penguin Island. The enclosure underwent a large renovation in 2015 to make a larger enclosure including an interactive walkway allowing guests to get closer to the birds than ever before.