[CINC] This is COOL!

[Ron Dreher]

Custom wetsuit protects patchy penguin


*       Story Highlights 

*       Pierre, a 25-year-old African penguin, was balding and thus too cold
to swim

*       California Academy of Sciences turned to dive company for a solution

*       Since getting his suit, Pierre has gained weight and grown more
feathers



*       .
<http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/24/teen.writing.ap/index.html?iref=nextin> 



SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- What's black and white and warm all over?
A penguin in a wetsuit, naturally.

art.penguin.wetsuit.ap.jpg

Pierre the penguin wears his wetsuit as he walks with help from aquatic
biologist Pam Schaller.

 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/04/24/penguin.wetsuit.ap/index.html>
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Sounds like a joke, but it's quite serious for biologists at the California
Academy of Sciences, who had a wetsuit created for an African penguin to
help him get back in the swim of things.

Pierre, a venerable 25 years old, was going bald, which left him with an
embarrassingly exposed, pale pink behind.

Unlike marine mammals, which have a layer of blubber to keep them warm,
penguins rely on their waterproof feathers. Without them, Pierre was
unwilling to plunge into the academy's penguin tank and ended up shivering
on the sidelines while his 19 peers played in the water.

"He was cold; he would shake," said Pam Schaller, a senior aquatic biologist
at the academy.

Pierre's species of penguin is accustomed to temperate climates, unlike many
of their cousins. The birds are nicknamed Jackass penguins because they make
sounds similar to braying donkeys, quite startling the first time you hear
it in an aquarium.

Schaller first tried a heat lamp to keep Pierre warm. Then she got another
idea: If wetsuits help humans frolic in the chilly Pacific, why not whip up
one in a slightly smaller size?

Staff members at Oceanic Worldwide, a supplier of dive gear based in San
Leandro, were enthusiastic about making a real penguin suit.

"We were really excited to do it," said Teo Tertel, company marketing
specialist. "We heard most of these penguins only live to 20, and our little
buddy there was already 25. Anything we could do to help them, we were all
for it."

Schaller conducted fittings to design the suit, which fastens with Velcro at
the back, covers Pierre's torso and has small openings for his flippers.

"I would walk behind him and look at where there were any gaps, and cut and
refit and cut and refit until it looked like it was extremely streamlined,"
she said.

One concern was that the other penguins would reject Pierre in his new duds,
but, they accepted his sleek new look.

Pierre was outfitted with the suit about six weeks ago. Since then, he has
gained weight and grown back feathers on his hind parts and is again acting
like his feisty, alpha-male self.

On a recent visit, Pierre waddled around the tank, taking brief dips and
standing on a rock next to his mate. He blended in well, although he was the
only penguin with a black tummy.

Schaller can't say whether the wetsuit allowed Pierre to recover his fine
feathers, but "certainly we were able to keep him comfortable during a
period of time that would have been very difficult for him to stay
comfortable."

With his plumage restored, Pierre is being weaned off the suit, taking more
and more dips in the buff.

There are no plans to make him a matching surf board

 

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