What's black and white and warm all over? A
penguin in a wetsuit, naturally.
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 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 in fact, they accepted his sleek new look.
Pierre was outfitted with the suit about six weeks ago. Since
then, he has gained weight, 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 for sure 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.