Zoo is baffled by death of penguins

Dublin Zoo is investigating the mysterious deaths of all but one of its penguins. The surviving penguin, a male called Percy, is being kept under observation by veterinary staff after the other 11 members of his group died within hours of each other.

The deaths, which happened 15 days ago, were confirmed yesterday by a zoo spokeswoman. She said preliminary post-mortems on the birds, aged between four and 17, were inconclusive. Further tests were being carried out.

In a brief statement, the zoo said the 11 black-foot penguins had been "in good health" and the staff "are extremely upset at this unprecedented occurrence".

The spokeswoman said the zoo would not speculate on the cause of the penguins' deaths and the results of further tests should be known by the end of the week.

She confirmed that the pool in the enclosure had been painted a week before the penguins died. There had been speculation that the penguins were poisoned by paint toxins. However, the spokeswoman said painting the pool was a "reasonably regular occurrence" and the zoo had always used the same paint. "The post-mortems found nothing initially and they have had to go back and do new tests."

The average age of the group was seven years and the spokeswoman said it had not been a particularly good breeding group. One or two chicks were produced every year and no chicks had been born in the zoo for the last three years.

The zoo has a veterinary surgeon on call, who was alerted when the penguins became ill. They were taken from the enclosure but died shortly afterwards.

The spokeswoman said the penguins did not have a single specialist keeper but were looked after by six keepers who also looked after other animals.

Percy, the 10-year-old surviving penguin, now remains on his own in the enclosure.