Pullidex Case Study
Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa is home to an African Penguin colony cared for under permits from the State of Hawaii, the USDA, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The colony traces back to Metro Richmond Zoo in Virginia, home to one of the strongest African Penguin programs in the world.
At a glance
- ClientHyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa, animal care team
- SpeciesAfrican Penguin (Spheniscus demersus), endangered
- ServiceDNA sexing from eggshell membrane
- ResultMale, confirmed by repeat testing
- OutcomeA balanced colony of four males and four females, plus a naming campaign with more than 1,000 voters
How the colony came to Maui
Two of those penguins are Phoenix, a three year old female and the 300th penguin born at Metro Richmond Zoo, and Kennedy, a two year old male and the youngest bird selected for the move to Maui. Phoenix survived an animal hospital fire in Richmond and was named for the zoo’s rise from the ashes. In 2025 she was chosen to relocate to Maui to honor fire survivors living in Lahaina.
On March 17, 2026, during the historic Kona Low storm, Phoenix laid an egg. With flooding forcing the birds indoors, the team moved the egg to an incubator and gave the pair a plaster egg so they would keep their parenting instincts. Humidity from the non-stop rain made the incubator settings a real challenge, and the team expected this first cycle to be a learning experience.
Thirty-eight days later, on April 24, they walked in to a fully hatched chick. Most chicks take a day or two to break through the shell. This one was out and already dry before the egg could be returned to the parents. Phoenix and Kennedy rejected the chick on introduction, which is common for first time parents this young, so the team took over full time foster care with feedings every three hours from 6am to 9pm.
Why Hyatt Regency Maui chose non-invasive DNA sexing
“We chose eggshell testing because penguin chicks are very delicate in their first weeks of life. We weren’t going to risk the life of an endangered species by traveling to a vet for bloodwork or subjecting our chick to unnecessary invasive procedures. This was the first chick hatched in almost 17 years at our facility and his health and well-being were our top priority.”
Povi Carisa-Abney, Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa
African Penguins are monomorphic, which means males and females look alike. There is no way to tell them apart by sight, and for a managed breeding program the sex of every bird shapes pairing decisions and the balance of the colony.
The usual route is a blood sample, which for a hatchling means handling, restraint, and travel. The alternative is to work from what the chick already left behind. When a chick hatches, the inner membrane of the shell carries cells from the chick itself. That membrane is DNA that costs the bird nothing to give.
What Pullidex did
The animal care team at Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa shipped the eggshell to our lab. We extracted DNA from the shell membrane and ran our avian sexing assay, which targets the CHD1 gene on the Z and W sex chromosomes. In birds, females carry ZW and males carry ZZ, so the result reads as two bands for a female and a single band for a male.
Eggshell membrane is a lower yield sample type than blood or a feather shaft, and the stakes here left no room for a maybe. We ran the sample more than once and confirmed the same result on repeat testing before reporting anything back.
Confidentiality was part of the job. The hatch was not public yet, and the Hyatt Regency Maui team was holding the news until their communications team was ready. That shaped how we handled updates on the order and who saw the result.
The result in context
A male chick gave the Hyatt Regency Maui colony a perfect balance of four males and four females. For a program working with an endangered species, that balance shapes pairing decisions for years.
“Our experience working with Pullidex was incredible. They understood how important accuracy, speed and confidentiality was for us in this situation. Their communication and professionalism was sincerely appreciated, and should we be lucky enough to have another penguin chick in our care, we would not hesitate to use their services again. In fact, one of our staff members used Pullidex’s feather DNA testing services with her pet cockatiels, and we had the same fast, detailed results for her bird.”
Povi Carisa-Abney, Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa
Once the sex was confirmed and the Hyatt team had clearance, the resort ran a public naming contest. More than 80 names were submitted and over 1,000 people voted. The winner was Kukui, after the Hawaii state tree, a fitting name for a chick that hatched on April 24, which is both Arbor Day and the day before World Penguin Day.
Kukui’s first ten weeks
- Week 1: Eyes open, crawling, taking formula, almost tripled his hatch weight
- Week 2: Sitting up, first small fish fillets, voice changing, four times his hatch weight
- Week 3: First steps, white appearing on his belly, first time outside
- Week 4: Whole fish, moved to a larger habitat, walking upright, tracking distant objects
- Week 5: Moved to the floor, first one on one interactions with other penguins, pinfeathers appearing
- Week 6: Off formula, molting begins, first stretches out on habitat
- Week 7: Feathers coming in around the feet, face, and under the wings; weight stabilizing
- Week 8: Crossed the 5 lb mark, first exposure to water at the splash pad
- Week 9: Losing down in patches, eating 24 fish a day
- Week 10: Swimming, diving, and interacting with the other penguins in the water
Why this matters beyond one penguin chick
Most of our work is chickens, waterfowl, and pet birds, and the same logic applies at every scale. If you can get an answer from a shell, a feather, or a blood spot instead of a vet visit, you spare the bird the stress and you get the information sooner.
Eggshell DNA sexing works on any bird species where the shell membrane is intact after hatch, and it is the only sample type that costs the bird nothing at all. For breeders, that means sexing a hatch as it happens. For a conservation program, it means answering a question about an endangered chick without ever picking it up.
About Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa
Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa is a 40-acre oceanfront resort located on Ka’anapali Beach on the island of Maui, Hawaii. The resort’s African penguin colony is part of a managed care network dedicated to the preservation of an endangered species whose wild populations in South Africa and Namibia continue to decline. Through interactive educational experiences, youth programs, and conservation fundraising efforts, Hyatt Regency Maui helps foster awareness, inspire future conservationists, and support wildlife protection both locally and around the world.
Case study published with the permission of the animal care team at Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa.