“Shedd Aquarium Names First Magellanic Penguin Bred at Shedd,” by S.M. O’Connor

The John G. Shedd Aquarium announced it has named the first Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) chick bred at the facility, which hatched over Mother’s Day weekend. During the course of a regular check-up, the veterinary team conducted a blood test and determined the chick was a female and was meeting her milestones. Shedd staff and volunteers named her Nia (pronounced “Nee-ah”).

Guests at the Shedd Aquarium can distinguish her from the adult birds in the Polar Play Zone habitat because her feathers are not as dark as theirs. The name is a reference to Patagonia, a region in South America at the southern end of the continent where the species is native. Other name choices included Loma and Rossi, also derived from areas in South America within the range of the species. As other young birds reach reproductive maturity, the Shedd Aquarium expects more chicks to hatch in the future.

The Shedd Aquarium is home to two species of penguins, Magellanic and rockhopper (Eudyptes chrysocome). The rockhopper population is much older and has been more prolific. Diego hatched in 2015 and Ruggles hatched in 2013. Due to the Magellanic penguin population being much younger, some of those penguins are only now reaching sexual maturity. As they mature, it is likely more Magellanic penguins will hatch at the Shedd Aquarium.

“It’s an exciting time for the penguin colonies at the aquarium,” stated Lana Vanagasem, Manager of Penguins and Otters at the Shedd Aquarium. “While our Magellanics are maturing and beginning to pair off and breed, some of our rockhoppers are living to ages we’ve never seen before. As a caretaker, both situations present their own sets of challenges and rewarding moments.”[1]

Figure 1 Brenna Hernandez, © Shedd Aquarium Caption: The Shedd Aquarium announced it has named the first Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) chick bred at the facility, Nia (pronounced “Nee-ah”).

Figure 2 Brenna Hernandez, © Shedd Aquarium Caption: Nia’s name is a reference to Patagonia, a region in South America at the southern end of the continent where the species is native.

Figure 3 Brenna Hernandez, © Shedd Aquarium Caption: The Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) is named after the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (who died in 1521).[2]

Figure 4 Brenna Hernandez, © Shedd Aquarium Caption: Magellanic penguins grow to 24” to 30” tall.

Figure 5 Brenna Hernandez, © Shedd Aquarium Caption: In the wild, Magellanic penguins eat a diet that includes cuttlefish and krill.

Figure 6 Brenna Hernandez, © Shedd Aquarium Caption: There are breeding populations of Magellanic penguins in Argentina, on the Falkland Islands (called the Malvinas in Argentina), and in Chile. There are non-breeding populations in Brazil, Peru, and Uruguay. There are “vagrant” populations in Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

The Shedd Aquarium is located on the Museum Campus in the Chicago Park District’s Burnham Park. The address is 1200 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago Illinois 60605.

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ENDNOTES

[1] Ms. Vanagasem referred to four rockhopper penguins having turned thirty: Drake, Magdalena, Pebbles, and Wellington. These were the first penguins to have reached this advanced age at the Shedd.

[2] Magellan led the Spanish expedition to the East Indies between 1519 and 1522, which undertook the first circumnavigation of the Earth, completed under the command of Juan Sebastián Elcano (who died in 1526). Magellan and Elcano enjoyed the patronage of King Carlos I of Castile and Aragon (1516-1556)/Emperor Karl V of the Holy Roman Empire (1519-1556), whom English-speakers know as Emperor Charles V.

The Field Museum of Natural History in March, 2018

The Field Museum of Natural History’s entrance pavilions are at opposite ends of Stanley Field Hall, which has a north-south axis. The two porticos (porches) are each reached by two successive flights of stairs.

Both porticos of The Field Museum of Natural History are flanked by two small porches, which each have two caryatids (columns in the shape of maidens). On the facade, the wings are adorned with a colonnade of attached fluted Ionic columns. The building’s fluted Ionic columns have volutes (spiral-scroll-shaped crowns).

Each portico of The Field Museum is tetrastyle in antis with double-ranked fluted Ionic columns capped by volutes. An entablature crowned by a pediment rests atop the columns. The continuous frieze in each case is relatively plain. The wave-themed acroteria that crown the pediments are borrowed from the Palace of a Fine Arts, which housed The Field Museum until 1920 and now houses the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Field Museum of Natural History isn’t “just” a museum. Visitors can watch scientists at work through windows at the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice DNA Discovery Center’s Pritzker Laboratory.

Mrs. Charles (Laura) Schweppe, a daughter and co-heiress of John Graves Shedd, the former partner of Marshall Field I who succeeded him as president of Marshall Field & Company, and who, under the guidance of Stanley Field founded the Shedd Aquarium, donated an exhibit of 100 bronze sculptures by Malvina Hoffman to The Field Museum. They represent every race, nation, and tribe in the human family (more or less). On January 9, 1933, the first group, Unity of Man, went on display.

In addition to the four figures Henry Hering (1874-1949) made for the corners of Stanley Field Hall, he also made the twelve plaster round lion head shield escutcheons that line it. These are replicas of the marble round lion head shield escutcheon he made for the pediment of the facade of The Field Museum of Natural History.

Christmas at Chicago’s Union Station

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a POLAR EXPRESS display in the Great Hall of Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a closeup of the THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is the headlamp of THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Union Station Company rail car loaded with super-size gifts is part of THE POLAR EXPRESS mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Union Station in downtown Chicago has emblems of Amtrak, Metra, and historic railroad companies whose routes they now operate like Burlington.

Cinemas sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) Helped Design

This is the Pickwick Theatre Building, an Art Deco movie palace and office building erected in downtown Park Ridge, Illinois in 1928.

The architects were Roscoe Harold Zook and William F. McCaughey. Sculptor Alfonso Iannelli, who also worked on the Adler Planetarium, contributed to this building.

In recent years, the Vlahakis family, who’ve owned the building for 50 years, have been able to turn the building into a multiplex by adding smaller theaters around the original auditorium. The latest one, with a screen four times the size of the one in the auditorium, will open in time to screen INFINITY WARS in May, if all goes well.

The Catlow Movie Theater is a cinema that opened in downtown Barrington, Illinois in 1927. The Tudor Revival style of architecture is not confined to the facade of the cinema. As with the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, Illinois, sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) played a role in the design and decoration of The Catlow Movie Theater.