The penguins who had their chick stolen just before Christmas have hatched another egg at a zoo in southern England, officials said Saturday.
Kyala and Oscar’s new chick was born Tuesday, but has yet to be named and its sex was not yet known, zoo owner Derek Curtis told reporters.
Three-month-old Toga disappeared mid-December from the Amazon World zoo on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast. The bird is presumed dead, as experts said it was too young to survive without its parents.
Zookeepers at the time said they believed someone may have stolen him to give as a Christmas gift, inspired by the popular film “March of the Penguins.”
There was no sign of forced entry to the pen, but a thief would have been able to climb into the compound and carry the brown-and-white bird away.
Despite scores of reported sightings and an on-air confession from a man who called a television station to admit to stealing the bird, Toga was not been found.
Zoo officials have installed closed circuit television cameras and motion sensors to make sure that Toga’s expected sibling remains safely with his parents, who are a rare breed of penguin found on the southern coast of Africa.
