Penguin killer fined

A southern Tasmanian man has been fined for killing a penguin that bit him.

Russell Stanley Baines pleaded guilty in the Hobart Magistrates Court to doing an act that resulted in the death of an animal.

The 29 year old was at Bicheno on Tasmania's east coast in October last year and picked up a wild penguin but became enraged when it bit him. Baines killed the bird by throwing a rock at it.

Magistrate Glenn Hay recorded a conviction and fined Baines $630.

Source

Gay penguin couple trying to start a family

A couple of gay penguins at Polar Land in Harbin, northeast China, are attempting to steal eggs from straight birds in an effort to become "fathers", it has been reported.

The two penguins have started placing stones at the feet of parents before waddling away with their eggs, in a bid to hide their theft.

But the deception has been noticed by other penguins at the zoo, who have ostracised the gay couple from their group. Now keepers have decided to segregate the pair of three-year-old male birds to avoid disrupting the rest of the community during the hatching season.

"It's not discrimination. We have to fence them separately, otherwise the whole group will be disturbed during hatching time," a zoo a keeper said.

Source: China Daily

Bush Administration Delays Protection of Penguins

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal notice today that it intends to sue the Bush administration for delaying protection of penguins under the Endangered Species Act. In November 2006, the Center filed a petition to list 12 species of penguins as threatened or endangered under the Act the petition triggered a strict deadline that gave the government 12 months to determine whether protection is warranted for the penguins. In July, the Fish and Wildlife Service found that 10 of the species may deserve protection and began status reviews for those penguins, including the well-known emperor and rockhopper penguins. Now the government is ignoring its duty to move forward with protections for those 10 species, which are threatened by global warming.

"There's no time to wait when it comes to global warming," said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center's Climate, Air, and Energy Program. "We won't allow the Bush administration to continue to violate the law while these penguin species march toward extinction."

Purported purloined penguin positively a prank

All 15 of the African blackfooted penguins at the Georgia Aquarium are safely accounted for.

It's important to say that up front because, if you believe rumors circulating in the midstate, one of the little tuxedoed fellows was supposedly birdnapped in recent weeks by a student from West Laurens High School.

In fact, in a plot worthy of Oswald Cobblepot (aka The Penguin from the Batman comics), the case of the purloined penguin has been floating around for the past decade or so from virtually any city with a zoo or an aquarium. It's a fish tale starring aquatic birds.

Conservation Group Seeks Protection From Effects of Global Warming

The Center for Biological Diversity, (Center), a non profit conservation organization, filed a formal petition today requesting that 12 species of penguins worldwide, including the well known Emperor Penguin, be added to the list of threatened and endangered species under the United States Endangered Species Act. Reasons cited are a number of threats including global warming.

Abnormally warm ocean temperatures along with diminished sea ice have wrecked havoc on penguin food availability in recent decades. Less food has led to population declines in penguin species ranging from the Southern Rockhopper and Humboldt penguins of the islands off South America, and the African Penguin in southern Africa, to the Emperor Penguin in Antarctica. The ocean conditions causing these declines have been linked by scientists to global warming and are projected to intensify in the coming decades.

Flap over a tale of gay penguins

It was a love story that touched the heart of New Yorkers. Two gay penguins at Central Park Zoo who - after trying unsuccessfully to hatch a rock - were given a fertilised egg and raised their own little chick called Tango.

The tale of Roy and Silo was even made into a children's book called And Tango Makes Three. But, while liberal Manhattanites may have sighed at the sweetness of it all, not every American seems quite so pleased. The book has caused controversy in a number of small towns in the American heartland, where teachers and parents have complained that it is not suitable for children.