Following its premature death on Friday, the unhatched penguin embryo is to be made into a display specimen, Taipei City Zoo officials said yesterday.
According to zoo veterinarian Lee An-hsing (
PHOTO: LEE HUANG-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
"Our incubation log showed that on the [49th day] the parent penguins fought with each other over who should watch over the egg," Lee said. "A trauma to the egg at that stage could have resulted in the death of the embryo."
In other words, the embryo had been dead for over two weeks before zoo authorities ventured in on Friday and took it away from the father penguin for the purposes of examination.
The father penguin had continuously incubated the egg for over 50 days. By contrast, the mother penguin incubated the egg for only the few hours after she laid it.
Lee said that the dark and dehydrated embryo, which weighed around 40g and was 10cm long, was observed to have well-developed wings, webbed feet, and bill.
"The dead embryo will be sent to National Taiwan University Hospital for further examination and autopsy, and then prepared as a display specimen for the purpose of exhibition," Lee said.
According to Wang Chin-yuan (
"We'll be keeping a close eye on the health of the father and mother birds," Wang said.
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