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A new king penguin chick was successfully hatched by staff at the Calgary Zoo last week after a close call with a broken egg.

According to a news release on the zoo’s website, the egg was laid by mom Antoinette — a 27-year-old king penguin brought to Calgary from Montreal in hopes of breeding her. While Antoinette laid the egg, it was left in the care of another momma penguin, Diana, who has previously raised two other penguin chicks.

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The zoo says Antoinette and her mate Louis are considered founders to the North American king penguin population because they have no relatives in the zoo population and have never hatched a successful chick.

Penguin eggs have a two-month incubation period, and the egg was due to hatch on Aug. 11. However, over the August long weekend, staff found bits of eggshell and realized the egg had been cracked early.

“A badly broken shell so many days before hatching is very bad news,” the zoo’s news release says.