3 African penguin chicks join colony at Academy of Sciences

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Three new friends joined a penguin colony Wednesday morning at the California Academy of Sciences.

The penguin chicks are getting acclimated to their surroundings after spending several months bonding behind-the-scenes, learning how to swim and eat fish before they joined the main colony of 14 African penguins.

The Academy says they were born last year.

One of their curators said there are some common misconceptions about penguins. "So Chilly Willy is kind of a myth. Out of the 17 species of penguins, most of them are temperate. There are only a couple that actually live in the Antarctic year round," the curator said.

The Academy is holding a naming contest for two of the chicks. They'll take suggestions for the next two weeks before announcing the winning names.