Boston is about to have a lot more penguins

It wouldn't be Mother's Day without a fluff story. On Thursday, The New England Aquarium announced that four rare African penguin chicks had hatched over the last two months. The fuzzy baby birds — who haven't been named yet — are currently being cared for behind the scenes by the aquarium's Animal Care Team.

The new chicks were born to two sets of parents. New mom Namibia IV and dad Jahleel III had two hatchlings in April. Mother of six Malgas II and dad Demersus III — whose love story WBUR covered back in February — welcomed two chicks back in March.

Namibia and Malgas aren't the only moms in the mix. Harlequin, an experienced penguin mother, is helping foster one of Namibia IV's chicks while the first-time mom learns how to care for a her babies.

Making sure these penguins breed and raise healthy chicks is a part of the aquarium's conservation efforts, Eric Fox, the aquarium's assistant curator of penguins, told WBUR.

"It's thought that the African penguin will go extinct by 2035," said Fox. When it comes to educating people about the struggles endangered animals are facing, "There's no better ambassador for their species than some really cute chicks," Fox added.

The four chicks are expected to join the penguin exhibit sometime in June. "It all depends on their age and when they do something called fledging," said Fox. "When they get their waterproof feathers in." In the meantime, they'll be taught how to dive and swim before being introduced to the colony.

Visitors to the aquarium can still see a juvenile African penguin, "Bray," who is a little over a year old. Head over this Mother's Day and you might spot her with her mom, Malgas.

Thursday's penguin news didn't end on the waterfront. Halfway across town, the Franklin Park Zoo was also making a flightless splash.

Zoo New England broke ground on its African Penguin Coast project, an expansion to the Franklin Park Zoo’s African Experience exhibit, which will open to the public in 2026.

Park officials said the project aims to inspire action for wildlife and provide an opportunity for visitors to observe penguins from a glass-front view above and below the water of the habitat.

“We ended up with African penguins because they are so charismatic, so active,” said John Linehan, president and CEO of Zoo New England.

African penguins nest along coastal South Africa and Namibia. They thrive in temperate-zone habitats, so the zoo will install a geothermal system to heat and cool the penguin pool and building seasonally.

As the only penguin species that nests on the continent, African penguins have been endangered since 2010, in large part due to habitat loss, oil spills and overfishing of sardines, the penguins’ main source of food. Linehan said other factors, like over-harvesting penguin guano, have left many of the penguins without a place to nest.

"It's going to take us a while to get this project done, but we're going to start with about 12 to 14 penguins, probably because we're going to have a breeding colony and build up those numbers," Linehan said.

Visitors will also have hands-on opportunities to learn from scientists.

"We're also going to have a penguin rescue boat replica that the kids can actually climb onto and pretend that they're some of the people that are out there rescuing penguins," Linehan said.