THE first baby penguin of the year has hatched at Weymouth Sea Life Park.

Staff at the park were delighted to find the Humboldt penguin chick cheeping in its nest box.

Displays member Stephanie Eustace discovered the large egg in pieces during her checks and heard the new resident hiding under its parents Rowan and Maple - two of the park's rare Humboldt penguins.

Displays supervisor Sarah Leaney said: "The parents keep the chicks very well hidden away in nest boxes because naturally in the wild they would build nests well away from any kind of threats - it's still very early days.

"Here we have high fences to stop foxes and netting over the enclosures and it is expected to come out at about 90 days old."

She added: "We don't jinx it and name it when it's so young.

"We'll name it when it comes out but we're open to suggestions -all the other penguins are named after trees."

Humboldts are notoriously bad parents and this time last year the park celebrated the success of their first hand-reared Humboldt, Woody, whose parents Birch and Walnut had abandoned him at birth.

Mrs Leaney added: "We still have four eggs incubating with their parents. There's a couple of days to go on one set and five or six days to go on another set.

"It can take anything up to three days to come out of the egg and you can hear the chick cheeping two days before it hatches."

The latest chick is the fourth to be born at the sanctuary.