by hilzoy
I’m as sympathetic as anyone to conservationists’ complaints that people care more about threats to what they call “charismatic megafauna” than, say, the demise of some humble insect that’s the linchpin of an entire ecosystem. But baby penguins are in a class of cute all their own:
(Credit: Paul Ward.)
So the news that they are washing up dead in large numbers makes me cast my normal concern for bacteria and nematodes to the wind and wail: Nooo! Not baby penguins!!!
“Hundreds of baby penguins swept from the icy shores of Antarctica and Patagonia are washing up dead on Rio de Janeiro’s tropical beaches, rescuers and penguin experts said Friday.
More than 400 penguins, most of them young, have been found dead on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro state over the past two months, according to Eduardo Pimenta, superintendent for the state coastal protection and environment agency in the resort city of Cabo Frio.
While it is common here to find some penguins — both dead and alive — swept by strong ocean currents from the Strait of Magellan, Pimenta said there have been more this year than at any time in recent memory. (…)
Costa said the vast majority of penguins turning up are baby birds that have just left the nest and are unable to out-swim the strong ocean currents they encounter while searching for food.”
No one seems to know why this is happening; possible culprits include overfishing, pollution, and global warming.
cast my normal concern for bacteria and nematodes to the wind
Just goes to show you the hypocrisy of the capitulationist environmentalist movement: If they were *truly* conservationist they would campaign against penicillin, because of its genocidal properties! Hitler was a vegetarian! Mmobgglpff!
A single incident does not make a trend, but Tropical Storm Bertha is about to hit Iceland.
*Iceland*.
Well, many hurricanes after visiting the US turn into “normal” storms for the following visit to Europe. Not sure whereto they go from there and in what form.
They normally take the Southern route though, if I am not mistaken (I could easily be, not my area of expertise).
These baby penguins are victims of coddling, western civilization’s devastating solvent of the vital sinews required for negotiating life’s harsh currents and squalls.
The breakdown in discipline among penguin colonies (nobody knows how to waddle in a straight line anymore; each individual goes off radically in their individual directions, seeking themselves to the detriment of penquin society and giving civilization’s predators a leg up.)
The red flag was when little penquins were no longer required to wear those tuxedo-like uniforms to school, opting for the fad of the moment. You put a halter top on a little girl penquin and see what happens when she walks alone on the ice flow, by crackie.
Penquin jerky for the likes of Shackleton, that’s what, buster!
‘nother thing that happens: paragraphs are started and interrupted by parentheticals, never to be completed.
Run for it.
I’m afraid that the removal of coddling, the addition of discipline, and a dress code mandating school uniforms won’t help this little guy John.
He looks like a retarded rat with bad feet.
There is no doubt that penguins can be excellent poster animals for global warming. But Hilzoy needs better pictures.
Phil’s on my case. No disrespect for retarded rats with bad feet intended.
Gonna have to agree with Bill here. That doesn’t look like a photogenic penguin poster child; it has the look of an owl dipped in tar (or maybe crude).
Personally, thought it was incredibly cute. Maybe it’s the tiny little bill, and the invisible eyes.
Oh well. No accounting for taste — yours or mine, depending on whose you think is off the wall this time.
I blame those gay penguins. Clearly the act of a wrathful god.
Or maybe it’s the fact that I saw the original title on the web page I snagged it from.
“Bad Hair Day”
Thullen, in a typically mealy-mouthed liberal PC manner, refuses to put blame where it’s due: gay penguin marriage. Had the sanctity of penguin marriage, between one cock and one hen, not been undermined, we’d not now be seeing penguin youths irresponsibly cast adrift on the seas of life to ultimately wash up uncared-for and alone. Of course, gay penguin marriage and its incumbent social breakdown became inevitable as soon as penguin cocks were feminized by being forced into the role of stay-at-home dad by henpecking, emasculating career hens. Oh, sad tale of woe… Oh, sorry tragedy… Oh, the penguinity…
Honestly, that picture would be apt for a quiz question: The young of what bird species is that? Penguin would not have been high on my list. And it looks indeed tarred (no pun with feathers intended).
That’s just an observation, no moral or taste judgement is to be construed from it.
Bah, beat to the punch by slow typing once more! Curse you, Charles, curse you!
I bet they’re the ones killing all the bees.
habitat destruction ??
Are baby penguins cuter than Boopsie’s beloved baby ducks? (Actually, focusing only on its face, that looks remarkably like my Shih Tzu.)
No, that would be the Daleks.
The young of what bird species is that?
Here’s my guess.