This is the moment 11 adorable newborn penguin chicks start squeaking with excitement as a zookeeper approaches with a bucket of fish during feeding time at the Vienna zoo’s penguin kindergarten.

The little rockhopper chicks that hatched last month (April) at the Schonbrunn Zoo in Austria’s capital city of Vienna spend most of their time relaxing in their enclosure, swimming and waiting to be fed.

Stephan Hering-Hagenbeck, the zoo’s director, said in a statement obtained by Newsflash: “Each chick eats up to 20 small herrings and sprats per day. Even the youngest weighs one and a half kilograms”

He added: “No other zoo in Europe breeds rockhopper penguins so successfully”

The fluffy little birds can be seen in the videos gulping down several small herrings as they wait for their turn to eat in their enclosure after which some of them are weighed by the zookeepers.

The recipe for success according to the zoo is that the parents of the chicks take over their rearing from early on whilst zookeepers ensure they gain weight at a good rate by feeding and weighing them regularly.

The Northern rockhopper penguins are considered ‘endangered’ in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List due to a 30 percent population decline over the last 30 years of the 20th century.

This means that there is a high likelihood that they will go extinct in the near future if more effort isn’t made to preserve them.

Rockhopper penguins are among the smaller species of penguin and reach about 20 inches when in full growth. They are divided in three subspecies according to their breeding locations: the Eastern Rockhopper (Eudyptes filholi), the Northern Rockhopper (Eudyptes mosleyi) and the Southern Rockhopper (Eudyptes chrysocome).

Rockhoppers are the most widespread crested penguins with their natural habitat ranging from the Antarctic front to the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

Sabine Fruhwirth, the head of the zoo’s breeding department said: “Whether in Munich or Edinburgh, we keep an eye on all 135 rockhopper penguins across Europe”

She added: “We put together the breeding groups in the other zoos and pass on our experience in caring and breeding for the animals.”

The Vienna zoo runs the European conservation breeding program and keeps an eye on all 135 rockhopper penguins which are currently found in four different zoos across Europe.