The Great Penguin Rescue

by Meg on October 10, 2008

CNN is reporting a large group of penguins in Brazil got lost heading too far from their usual feeding grounds (according to reports, perhaps due to unusually earm water).

Pengies2

373 penguins were rescued, rehabilitated flown via cargo plane 1,550 miles to the country’s southern coast, where a crowd watched the tuxedo’s dudes march back into the sea.

Pengies

Nice one, Cuteporter Mary C.

{ 40 comments }

1 (The Original) Mel 10.10.08 at 12:22 am

Looks like the start of a little penguin marathon. Someone needs to shop some little numbers on them.

2 Not That Mike The Other Mike 10.10.08 at 12:22 am

Since they’re all in tuxedos, there really ought to have been a red carpet. ;-)

3 MadameX 10.10.08 at 12:24 am

Maybe they wanted to learn the Samba?

4 Juniper Jupiter 10.10.08 at 12:27 am

That is cool, but sad at the same time. :(

I just hope that the Tuxes don’t make a habit of doing this, because I’m not sure if they can handle the climate.

(CUTE pix, btw)

5 Dale 10.10.08 at 12:34 am

Did they have to pay $10 for miniscule packets of fish in packages no one can open?

6 Fegli 10.10.08 at 12:44 am

Kinda ironic how the emissions from the plane are part of the problem starting the global warming that led to the warm water temperatures… :( But no! No no!

The penguin waddles in the second pic are almost audible! As are the wing (flipper?) flaps! Love ‘em!!!

7 seth 10.10.08 at 12:44 am

glad to see they dressed for the occasion.

8 Sunstorm 10.10.08 at 12:48 am

Hiking off to do battle with kelp. They’re all grown up! *wipes a tear from eye*

9 Sunstorm 10.10.08 at 12:49 am

That’s right, i said kelp.

10 Theresa 10.10.08 at 12:54 am

Did anyone else go to Catholic school and call the nuns “the Penguin Patrol”?

11 momof2kitties 10.10.08 at 1:21 am

I second the call for ’shopped little marathon numbers on these prosh dudes!

Tomorrow IS RCF after all, Theo. Hint, hint…

12 skip 10.10.08 at 1:24 am

Triathlon, since they’re headed into water.

13 Nancy 10.10.08 at 1:45 am

d’int any of the humans wear a tux? or maybe simple black and white? poor little lost souls…

14 scooterpants 10.10.08 at 2:18 am

pengie wranglin, tiz the same all over’s.

15 rabble 10.10.08 at 3:37 am

the penguins in the top photo are seriously confused. they’re all like, “dood, where’s my carp?”

16 Raemie L. 10.10.08 at 4:27 am

Think of the choreography they can do on the water’s surface.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nQtRSHKDpg
(Not on water, but I pictured something like this.)

17 Shannon 10.10.08 at 4:40 am

Ahhhh – I need to be reminded more often that there are good people in the world!

18 Lizzy 10.10.08 at 6:16 am

@rabble – Hahahahaaaahaaaaaa!!! *gasp* *sputter* *dies*

19 Hon Glad 10.10.08 at 6:50 am

They need top hats and canes.

20 Norz 10.10.08 at 9:01 am

They were probably thinking “Right, I’m tired of freezing my parts off. Come on lads, we’re heading to warmer climates.”

And just after they arrive, some evul people ship them right back.

I can see the expressions of “But…but… warm, clear waters… new types of food… noooooooo…”

21 carotte 10.10.08 at 10:27 am

Having experienced the sudden presence of a tux when you’re warming up at the beach near Rio I can say that this is sadly not uncommon,
but they’re still cute hehe

22 staticgirl 10.10.08 at 11:21 am

It makes me happy when people do good things like this. :)

23 Laurel Lyon 10.10.08 at 12:15 pm

Flying penguins!

24 Patito Gigante 10.10.08 at 12:54 pm

You must watch the video. There is some serious low-angle waddle action.
http://us.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/10/08/rescued.penguins/index.html#cnnSTCVideo
Yeah, that’s a gigantic URL. What of it, punk?

25 girlnextdoortn 10.10.08 at 1:18 pm

I read an article about a penguin researcher in Discover magazine a few years ago. It briefly mentioned that penguins have been known to get off course like this before, and “one well-meaning couple kept a lost penguin in their refrigerator” until they could get the proper animal pros in to help the little guy out.

Just the idea… it makes me smile.

26 kar 10.10.08 at 2:00 pm

If only we had the time to outfit them all with little sweaters…. http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2006/04/penguin_cozies.html

They look like the annual running of the horses at Chicoteague. Can you imagine the tourist implications? People flock to Delaware to see the horses cross. Millions come to Run with the Bulls. Now we have Waddle with the Boids.

27 chanpon 10.10.08 at 2:08 pm

Those penguins. They really should’ve taken the left turn at Albuquerque.

28 Babs 10.10.08 at 2:23 pm

I hope they installed GPS devices before releasing them.

29 carmen 10.10.08 at 4:06 pm

A good job to all involved.

30 Alicia 10.10.08 at 5:01 pm

Totally adorable. But I can’t help but imagine that once they were flown back there were thinking “great, now we’re REALLY lost! where the heck are we now?!”

btw, I almost hit my fingers on the screen reaching out to touch them…stopped myself just in time though :)

31 Paunchie 10.10.08 at 5:43 pm

First pic is funneh, they do look disoriented, and some of them are looking at the hoomans going, what are you???

32 Dale 10.10.08 at 7:10 pm

Mrs. Penguin to Mr. Penguin: “I TOLD you we should have just stopped to ask for directions. But no, noooooo…”

33 eikoleigh 10.10.08 at 8:56 pm

Cutness

34 molly 10.10.08 at 10:03 pm

I used this story in my show the other day (local TV newscast)… today it was Vladimir Putin’s birthday tiger cub!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7664244.stm

35 berthaservant 10.11.08 at 3:37 am

I again publicly call for C.O. to adopt “RESCUTE” as a tag, and subsequently apply it to this post.

36 Katrina 10.11.08 at 11:55 am

Oh, crikey, no one else thought of “Flying Nuns”? Well, I did.
Yes, RESCUTE, so appropos.

37 momof2kitties 10.12.08 at 1:08 am

Yayyayyay!! New category FTW!!!!!!!! \o/

38 berthaservant 10.12.08 at 4:58 am

Superduper. I hope at some point some past “ResQte” posts can be re-tagged.

39 Critterfriend 10.12.08 at 5:30 am

Yay for the penguins! Yay for the rescuers! I find the human intervention very cool in this circumstance. It rekindles my hope for peace, love, and understanding, and all that. Very cool!
=^.^=

40 ks 10.14.08 at 5:12 pm

btw…20% died in the cargo! That’s 75 of them died in the plane

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