The historic port city of Baltimore on the Chesapeake Bay is known for many things. It's where our National Anthem was written by Francis Scott Key in 1814, and it's the hometown of creepy author Edgar Allen Poe and all-time baseball great Babe Ruth. But to the penguin-loving world, Baltimore is also known as one of the great centers of penguinism. Once home to the original site of Penguin Books, there remains a three-foot marble penguin statue on Light Street, between the Science Center and the Harborplace. At the Science Center, one can learn about penguins and even take in a penguin-themed IMAX film, when one is scheduled. Also at the Light Street Pavilion of Harborplace is Next Stop South Pole, a 750 square foot all-penguin shop. Open since 1987, it offers over 300 different penguin items and is open 364 days a year.

Meanwhile, further uptown, the Baltimore Zoo not only has one of the country's largest and most people-friendly penguin exhibits, but it's breeding program has been an unqualified success, resulting in the largerst and most prolific colony of African penguins in North America. Since the zoo began breeding in 1967, almost 800 African penguins, also known as Black footed or Jackass penguins, have been born, stocking dozens of zoos and aquariums with the endangered bird over the years. The African penguin, distinguished by a black band across the upper chest, stands 18 inches tall and weighs about 8 pounds. They used to live by the millions on the coastal islands of South Africa, but now only about 140,000 exist, in large part due to oil spills and over-harvesting of fish the penguins rely on as a food source.

Three years ago, the American Zoo and Aquarium Association officially selected the Baltimore Zoo to establish a species survival plan for the North American population of African penguins. The goal of the program is to produce a stable, genetically diverse population that can be acquired by zoos and aquariums worldwide. The plan's propagation group includes a geneticist, a nutritionist, and a behaviorist, as well as members from other zoos who meet regularly to share information.

The Black footed penguin was first mentioned in the journals of explorer Alvero Vello in 1497. He wrote, "These are birds as big as ducks, but they cannot fly because they have no feathers on their wings. These birds...bray like asses." Hence the endearing nickname Jackass penguin.

The species, one of several that live in temperate climates, is listed as vulnerable, yet as late as 1967 their eggs were served as a delicacy in South African restaurants. The zoo's 66 African penguins live in three rooms at the end of a long underground tunnel. One room contans 16 plastic dog crates that line the walls and are used as nesting boxes. Couples have taken up occupancy in some of the boxes. Normally these penguins are monogamous their whole lives, however, there are exceptions. "It's like a soap opera down here, I swear," said Sharon Overholser, the zoo's senior keeper of birds, who keeps track of the 666 African penguins in the "studbook", a registry of birds at 55 zoos and aquariums. "We used to have a female that went around breaking up all the other pairs."

Nearly 70 percent of the penguins in the U.S. and Canada listed in the studbook can be traced to the Baltimore Zoo's penguins. Members of the propagation group select pairs that are genetically valubable for breeding and guard against inbreeding. In some cases, they will pair penguins that don't have a natural attraction for each other because they are a good genetic match. Because female and male penguins are virtually identical, it frequently takes blood tests to determine their sex. African penguins take weeks, even months, before they mate while the couple gets to know each other. "It is just like dating," Overholser stated.

The female will lay two eggs about four days apart, the second for survival insurance. It takes 38 days for the eggs to hatch. In the wild, both parents would care and keed the young, but that isn't prudent at the zoo because it places the young at risk of being picked on by other penguins. So the chicks are taken from their parents at three weeks and placed in age-specific boxes in the nursery next to the kiddie pool where they will learn to swim at about two months, after their down has turned to feathers.

"They get swimming lessons. We toss them in and they learn to swim," Overholser said. "They don't like it right away, but they come around." Between 12 and 16 weeks of age, the juveniles are introduced to the colony and each penguin develops it's own personality. One female won't eat squid until a day or two before she's ready to lay eggs, and then that's all she wants. A male named Jack has a habit of pecking at shoes and pulling at coat hems. "I'm crazy about them," says Overholser. "They just love to mess with you."

Given the precarious nature of the African penguin in the wild, it's possible that one day in the future, most of the world's African penguins will trace their lineage to the city on the Chesapeake -- Baltimore.

Elmer, an eight month old gentoo penguin at SeaWorld San Antonio, is alive and well thanks to a quick thinker who found an sticky solution to an even stickier problem. SeaWorld Penguin specialist Cyndi Laljer took fast action to save the life of an unhatched gentoo chick when she discovered a cracked egg in the marine life adventure park's Penguin Encounter habitat. She applied a liberal amount of Elmer's Glue to prevent the egg's membrane from drying and tearing. After two weeks in an incubator, the chick inside began to hatch. With a little help escaping the glue-reinforced shell, Elmer the penguin was hatched.

"The chances of an unhatched chick surviving in a cracked egg are very slim. Upon examination, we realized that the egg's membrane was still intact and the chick was still alive, so we had to try something -- fast," Laljer said. "I remembered that Elmer's Glue is non-toxic, and thought it would be the perfect adhesive to protect the egg. Once the egg was coated, we still had some concerns about the chick's survival. It didn't have much room inside to grow, because one side of the egg was completely pushed in."

Today, Elmer delights and educates thousands of visitors at SeaWorld San Antonio. Since saving Elmer, SeaWorld bird specialists have successfully used the glue technique to reinforce other cracked eggs and save the lives of other bird species. They plan to write a scientific paper on the technique for publication to parks nationwide.