We are pleased to welcome Thom Hofman, a wonderful writer at Daddy, Medium-Well, and keeper of penguins at a famous water-inspired world that doesn’t star Kevin Costner.
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April 25th is deemed in some official book somewhere as World Penguin Day. Somehow, and because mimeograph machines probably still exist, January 20th is Penguin Awareness Day.
Two days to celebrate penguins; as a penguin keeper I have 363 more than the average person.
World Penguin Day is a day to marvel that penguins exist, embodying as they do absurdity and grace all at once. They inhabit the ocean spaces from the equatorial region on down to the krill-rich polypnas of the Antarctic. And they’re in serious decline.
There’s this statistic that emperor penguins may be extinct by 2100, as the polar ice goes the way of a fast-melting ice cube in a warming drink. The ocean is a warming drink, and where the tumbler is most beaded is the northern Antarctic Peninsula. This is where the greatest biodiversity of penguins live.
On World Penguin Day, think to them. Think to the zoos that care for them, fund ex situ work, and educate the people that may someday find the switch that’ll turn the global A/C back on.
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Want to read a wonderful piece of writing on penguins from Thom Hofman? Of course you do: Closing Penguin
Care to learn more about penguins in general? Visit Nothing but Penguins.
And that’s not all! Read F U Penguin if you want to laugh at all kinds of cute animals.
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BONUS: Here’s me (Whit) dancing with penguins and you being jealous.
