It’s official. The Tennessee Aquarium penguin chick, now 6 months old, is a female.
And you could be the one to name her.
She’s large for her age and for her breed, a gentoo penguin.
She’s also very athletic, “displaying bursts of energy as she races across the exhibit making tight turns and flips,” says Tennessee Aquarium aviculturist Loribeth Aldrich.
Between Saturday and Jan. 2, Tennessee Aquarium visitors and Facebook fans may enter a contest to name the new girl, hatched here on June 30, said aquarium spokesman Thom Benson.
By entering the Penguin Naming contest, voters could win a trip to Chattanooga for 2011. The trip includes overnight accommodations at the Chattanooga Marriott at the Convention Center and a family four-pack of tickets to the Tennessee Aquarium, Imax 3D Theater, River Gorge Explorer and Creative Discovery Museum.
Aquarium experts weren’t sure the penguin was female until DNA tests taken just before Thanksgiving confirmed her sex, Benson said.
The new kid, easily identifiable for visitors by her blue-and-white bead bracelet, loves the water and spends most of her time there, said Aldrich.
Her parents, Biscuit and Blue, also spend a lot of time in the water.