THIS baby penguin has found a new home in a flower pot to stop his inexperienced parents would trample him to death.

Even if he survived that there was a good chance his mother and father would end up feeding their offspring pebbles or twigs.

Staff at the Flamingo Park, at Seaview, on the Isle of Wight, were so concerned they were forced to take the youngster away from his parents before he hatched.

Lorraine Adams, a partner in the family-run attraction, said: "His parents are only three years old, which is very young for penguins to have a baby.

"It usually takes them a few goes to get the hang of it. There was a very real danger they could end up killing him by treading on him.

"Even if they didn't it is not unusual for inex-perienced parents to end up feeding their young twigs or even pebble gravel."

So it has fallen to Lorraine to act as a foster mum looking after the first penguin ever born at the park.

To ensure his legs don't splay out and become deformed, Lorraine has placed the penguin in a flower pot - which is just the right shape to keep him upright.

She is feeding him a diet of liquefied sprat through a syringe until he is old enough to start eating solids.

The new arrival, who weighed in at just 55 grams and is yet to be named, is expected to join the rest of the 20-strong Flamingo Park flock in the summer.

Lorraine, 34, said: "We will put him in a pen near the others so they can have a look at him and he can see them.

"After that hopefully he will integrate into the rest of the community without any problems." The Humboldt penguin, a native of the rocky coasts of Peru and Chile in South America, is a threatened species.

Conservationists say there are only around 10,000 left in the wild.

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