Pierre the lonely penguin watches Pingu for company during isolation
Pierre the penguin catches up on his latest viewing of Pingu.
We’ve all binged a TV show or two when we’ve felt lonely or sad.
Pierre the penguin is no different.
The northern rockhopper penguin at Perth Zoo is less than a year old but has an “arrested moult”, where his feather moulting process hasn’t completed and he’s not yet waterproof or able to return to the wild.
So it leaves him in a bit of a lonely spot.
But instead of meeting penguins in the real-world, he watches penguin documentaries as well as Pingu on an iPad to pass the time.
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Rockhopper Penguins are known to be one of the rarest penguins in the world and are known for their ‘charismatic personalities and distinctive groucho marx eyebrows’.
They’re known as Rockhoppers as they prefer to hop around on rocky shores rather than sliding around their bellies like other penguin species.
Pierre’s typical day involves “feeding, having a light water mist and checking himself out in the mirror”, according to Perth Zoo.
And it’s not the only bit of penguin news in this story.
Pierre the penguin.
Victoria’s Phillip Island penguins are proving an online hit, with hundreds of thousands viewing the opening night of a new live video.
Billed as the world’s first nightly live stream of a natural wildlife event, Live Penguin TV smashed expectations to attract an audience of 771,000 on Tuesday evening.
Viewers from some 30 countries including the United States, Japan, China and Germany watched as more than 900 little penguins waddled ashore from Bass Strait to their burrows.
Phillip Island Nature Parks chief executive Catherine Basterfield said the initial response was beyond their wildest dreams.
“It seems to have hit the intent, which was to put a smile on people’s faces in their homes,” she told AAP.
“Everyone loves penguins. But I think particularly in Victoria and Australia and probably a lot of places around the world, everyone’s looking for some fun distractions to keep them entertained.”
The parade at Phillip Island on Victoria’s south coast is a major tourism drawcard.
The live stream is free, although viewers can donate to a penguin conservation fund via an attached link.
The parade will screen nightly from 6pm AEST on Facebook and YouTube.
