Adventure Aquarium in Camden, N.J. is inviting the public to vote on the name for its latest African penguin chick. This male baby penguin is the third to be born at the aquarium in the past year, following babies Oscar and Duffy, whose births were announced in December 2025.
The Birds & Mammals team has selected the names “Scrappy,” “Zero,” “Flounder” and “Toothless” as potential candidates, with visitors to the aquarium being able to vote for their favorite out of those four between Jan. 5 and Jan. 19. These names all come from sidekick characters in Disney animated movies or popular dragon characters, as the baby penguin’s mother, Mushu, was named after the dragon from “Mulan.”
The results of the contest will be announced on Jan. 20, which is also Penguin Awareness Day.
“We are very excited for Mushu and Hubert to raise their second-ever chick,” said Maddie Olszewski-Pohle, an African penguin biologist at Adventure Aquarium. “Both parents did an exceptional job feeding and caring for this chick, who is the biggest of the season. Our naming contest will benefit AZA [Association of Zoos and Aquariums] SAFE African Penguins and SANCCOB [the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds], with proceeds supporting vital conservation efforts. As an ambassador for his species, this chick is helping raise awareness and funds to protect African penguins in South Africa.”
African penguins were designated as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (ICUN) in October 2024 due to environmental changes and a significant decline in food availability due to commercial fishing. 97% of the population of penguins that called the South African and Namibian coasts home is now gone, with experts estimating that they could be extinct by 2035.
Adventure Aquarium is part of the AZA Species Survival Plan, which sees zoos and aquariums across the country practicing captive breeding programs to help maintain and diversify populations of threatened and endangered animals. These programs have led to endangered animals such as black-footed ferrets and the American red wolf being successfully reintroduced and integrated into the wild. Programs like the one that bred the new penguin chick ensure that captive populations of endangered species will continue to exist even if they become extinct in the wild.
The penguin chick, along with siblings Oscar and Duffy, will not be part of the aquarium’s penguin habitat until his waterproof feathers fully develop, but the aquarium will continue to post baby penguin antics on its Instagram @adventureaquarium.
