Mumbai civic body confirms: four secret penguin births, one full enclosure
The BMC has confirmed that four Humboldt penguin chicks born over the past year at Mumbai's Byculla Zoo are healthy, taking the colony to 25 birds.
Mumbai’s civic body has confirmed that the Humboldt penguin colony at the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Botanical Garden and Zoo has grown from 21 to 25 birds, after four chicks born over the past year were declared healthy and added to the public count. Zoo officials said the births were deliberately kept under wraps until each chick’s health was confirmed.
The four chicks arrived over several months: a male, Pikachu, in October 2025; a female, Lily, in January 2026; and two more, Leo and Bella, in February. Officials said Pikachu, Leo and Bella are offspring of the pair Donald and Daisy, while Lily was born to Popeye and Olive.
With the enclosure now at its designed capacity of 25 birds, the civic body plans to expand the facility from around 2,000 square feet to 3,000 square feet, increasing its capacity to 40 penguins. Officials said the expansion will integrate an adjoining space into the existing enclosure, and preparatory work is already underway, with the main integration likely to start toward the end of the year.
During that period, all 25 penguins may be shifted to the zoo’s quarantine facility for around two to three months, and the penguin exhibit is likely to remain closed to the public for that duration.
The rising numbers have also led the zoo to look at relocating some birds to other institutions. Officials said they approached zoological parks elsewhere in the country, initially proposing exchanges and later offering penguins as donations, but found limited interest. ‘The infrastructure required to house Humboldt penguins is highly specialised and expensive. Maintaining the habitat involves advanced temperature control, water filtration and veterinary care, which many zoos are not equipped for,’ a civic official said, noting that a July 2023 proposal to exchange birds with Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad has not yet materialised.
The penguins were brought to Byculla Zoo from South Korea in 2016 and have since become its most popular exhibit, drawing thousands of visitors weekly.
Wikimedia Commons/by Pradeep717
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