lap-swimming penguins
Jan. 16th, 2003 09:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elionwyrThanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
terminusvox for telling me about this story! I have a friend who used to be a penguin keeper, and so I know they're trainable, but...this *is* odd.
~~
Penguins Puzzle San Francisco Zookeepers
Thu Jan 16, 5:07 AM ET
SAN FRANCISCO - A few penguins swimming leisurely at the San Francisco Zoo is nothing new. But dozens of them doing laps in unison for hours has zookeepers perplexed.
"We've lost complete control," said Jane Tollini, the zoos penguin keeper. "It's a free-for-all in here. After 18 years of doing this job, these birds are making mincemeat of me."
It all started in November when six newcomer Megellannic penguins, formerly of Sea World in Aurora, Ohio, were brought in.
Since then the penguin pool at the San Francisco Zoo has been a daily frenzy of circle swimming by all of the 52 birds at once.
The penguins start swimming in circles early in the day and rarely stop until they stagger out of the pool at dusk.
The six penguins from Ohio started it all, Tollini said, apparently convincing the others to join them for the watery daily circuit.
"I can't figure out how the Aurora penguins communicated and changed the minds of the other 46," Tollini said.
Some penguin experts point to the highly social animals as being open to new ideas fostered by newcomers in to the zoo's so-called Penguin Island.
"Penguins are extraordinarily social birds," said Christina Slager, associate curator at Monterey Bay Aquarium. She has studied Magellanics in the wild in Patagonia and Chile.
"And they're very, very inquisitive. If you combine those facts and put in a new stimulus, like the six new penguins, they have to check it out."
Aquatic biologist Pam Schaller of the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco described it in more matter-of-fact terms.
"Genetically, they're designed to swim," Schaller said. "I'd be more amazed if the six had learned to do something not in penguin nature and showed the other 46 how to do it - like if the birds were trained to jump through a hoop."
terminusvox for telling me about this story! I have a friend who used to be a penguin keeper, and so I know they're trainable, but...this *is* odd.~~
Penguins Puzzle San Francisco Zookeepers
Thu Jan 16, 5:07 AM ET
SAN FRANCISCO - A few penguins swimming leisurely at the San Francisco Zoo is nothing new. But dozens of them doing laps in unison for hours has zookeepers perplexed.
"We've lost complete control," said Jane Tollini, the zoos penguin keeper. "It's a free-for-all in here. After 18 years of doing this job, these birds are making mincemeat of me."
It all started in November when six newcomer Megellannic penguins, formerly of Sea World in Aurora, Ohio, were brought in.
Since then the penguin pool at the San Francisco Zoo has been a daily frenzy of circle swimming by all of the 52 birds at once.
The penguins start swimming in circles early in the day and rarely stop until they stagger out of the pool at dusk.
The six penguins from Ohio started it all, Tollini said, apparently convincing the others to join them for the watery daily circuit.
"I can't figure out how the Aurora penguins communicated and changed the minds of the other 46," Tollini said.
Some penguin experts point to the highly social animals as being open to new ideas fostered by newcomers in to the zoo's so-called Penguin Island.
"Penguins are extraordinarily social birds," said Christina Slager, associate curator at Monterey Bay Aquarium. She has studied Magellanics in the wild in Patagonia and Chile.
"And they're very, very inquisitive. If you combine those facts and put in a new stimulus, like the six new penguins, they have to check it out."
Aquatic biologist Pam Schaller of the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco described it in more matter-of-fact terms.
"Genetically, they're designed to swim," Schaller said. "I'd be more amazed if the six had learned to do something not in penguin nature and showed the other 46 how to do it - like if the birds were trained to jump through a hoop."
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no subject
Date: 2003-01-16 07:12 am (UTC)Re: laugh
Date: 2003-01-16 07:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-17 02:52 am (UTC)And now, if you listen carefully, you can hear a faint, "KEEP THAT CHIN UP PRIVATE, FLAP THOSE FLIPPERS! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WHEN THE SHARKS COME? YOU LILY-LIVERS SWIM LIKE AN ICE FLOE!"
Re: military penguins
Date: 2003-01-17 11:14 am (UTC)I heard about that..
Date: 2003-01-17 07:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-17 12:00 pm (UTC)Penguin conspiracy!
Date: 2003-01-17 12:48 pm (UTC)Evil penguins..!
Penguins Swim in Mock Migration to Nowhere
Date: 2003-01-17 12:56 pm (UTC)SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The penguins at the San Francisco Zoo are swimming around in circles for hours at a time because they have been bamboozled by six new birds into performing a mock migration, officials say.
The marathon began late last month when the newcomers joined the colony, leaving the zoo's penguin keeper Jane Tollini scratching her head as to how the birds from an Ohio theme park, convinced the 46 others to start in with the frenzied swimming.
They are so determined even a lack of water cannot keep the birds from the 130-feet-long, 40-feet-wide pool. When zoo keepers first drained the pool for cleaning, the penguins simply jumped in and walked around the bottom, Tollini said.
"I'd like to think I know quite a bit when it comes to penguins but I am at a complete loss when it comes to this one," Tollini said. "The minute the six hit this pool, not only did they get in the pool and stay there, they convinced the other birds to do likewise."
Normally the penguins at the zoo's so-called Penguin Island spend this part of the year in their burrows, grooming, decorating their habitations and only occasionally waddling out for brief swims in the pool, she added.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=573&ncid=757&e=5&u=/nm/20030117/od_nm/penguin_dc
Confused penguins migrate to nowhere
Date: 2003-01-17 01:04 pm (UTC)By Michael Kahn
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The penguins at the San Francisco Zoo are swimming around in circles for hours at a time because they have been bamboozled by six new birds into performing a mock migration, officials have said.
The marathon began late last month when the newcomers joined the colony, leaving the zoo's penguin keeper Jane Tollini scratching her head as to how the birds from an Ohio theme park, convinced the 46 others to start in with the frenzied swimming.
They are so determined even a lack of water cannot keep the birds from the 130-feet (40 metres) long, 40-feet (12 metres) wide pool. When zoo keepers first drained the pool for cleaning, the penguins simply jumped in and walked around the bottom, Tollini said.
"I'd like to think I know quite a bit when it comes to penguins but I am at a complete loss when it comes to this one," Tollini said. "The minute the six hit this pool, not only did they get in the pool and stay there, they convinced the other birds to do likewise."
Normally the penguins at the zoo's so-called Penguin Island spend this part of the year in their burrows, grooming, decorating their habitations and only occasionally waddling out for brief swims in the pool, she added.
KEEPER BECOMES A DRIVE-THROUGH RESTAURANT
That all changed with the arrival of six Magellan penguins formerly of Sea World in Ohio. Now the birds won't get out of the pool even to eat and no longer listen to Tollini who has names for all the birds and can tell them apart.
She said the constant swimming also makes it difficult to feed the animals. The penguins used to line up for food but now they just whiz by in the water, getting their food and vitamins on the go as Tollini dispenses food to the passing birds.
"I've lost complete control of the birds," Tollini said. "I am kind of like a drive-through restaurant now. they see me, see the fish, run past me, grab the fish and keep going."
While these types of penguins in the wild typically go on migrations of up to 2000 miles (3,219 kms) in search of food, these birds in captivity had never exhibited this type of behaviour before.
Penguin experts say the birds are highly social and curious creatures and suggest the newcomers may have made such a splash that the others simply decided to follow.
"Usually there are one or two dominant birds," Ian Hiler, director of touring exhibits at Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "Somehow these animals came up and showed they are worthy of being followed."
For her part, penguin keeper Tollini predicts things will get back to normal in February when the onset of the breeding season will hopefully lure the birds back to their burrows.
"It may be a very stimulating breeding season," she said. "I think they have gotten a new lease on life by doing this."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=857&ncid=757&e=10&u=/nm/20030117/od_uk_nm/oukoe_odd_penguin
"It may be a very stimulating breeding season"
Date: 2003-01-17 02:32 pm (UTC)Thank you. :)