Penguin sweater

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Photo-request.svg
 Image wanted 

Penguin sweaters are sweaters that are knitted for penguins that have been caught in an oil spill. The sweaters prevent penguins that have come into contact with oil from cleaning their plumage and keep them warm. This is to prevent the animals from poisoning themselves with the oil. In addition, the released oil destroys the natural thin oil layer on the plumage of the penguins, which at the same time enables the inclusion of heat-insulating air and the mobility of the body. The sweaters are taken off and disposed of as soon as the penguins can be washed.

The penguin sweaters were invented in the wake of the oil spill in January 2000 in Phillip Island Nature Park . With the Penguin Jumpers Project , private individuals were called upon to produce such sweaters. Over 15,000 sweaters were sent in. The knitting patterns are still available online because subsequent oil spills made it necessary. Excess sweaters that had already been made were saved for future use.

After an oil spill off New Zealand in 2011 , an appeal for hand-knitted penguin sweaters was also started in a knitting forum and hundreds were sent in. In this case, however, none of the sweaters were used. The recovery of the penguins was brought about by keeping them in warm water and under heat lamps.

A sweater-like wetsuit was made for a penguin that had lost its feathers. Similar items of clothing are also made for the rehabilitation of battery hens.

Since 2014, the Australian Penguin Foundation has continued to accept handmade penguin sweaters, but no longer uses them to rehabilitate penguins. Instead, they are used to dress toy penguins, which are sold to raise funds for the foundation.
In spring 2015, Australian and British media reported that the oldest Australian, 109-year-old Alfred Date , was knitting sweaters for the Phillip Island penguins.

Individual evidence and explanations

  1. ↑ Holly Hartman: Penguin sweaters: Cozy tops give small birds a chance . Retrieved April 25, 2008.
  2. ↑ Woolly Jumpers for Oiled Penguins . In: BBC , February 16, 2007. Retrieved July 17, 2009. 
  3. ↑ Penguin jumpers mercy flight . In: BBC News . February 8, 2002. Retrieved April 25, 2008.
  4. ^ Tasmanian Conservation Trust: Penguin Conservation in Tasmania . Retrieved April 13, 2010.
  5. ↑ International Business Times Staff Reporter: Penguin Sweaters Help Those Affected by Oil Spills . October 20, 2011. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
  6. ↑ Buscke: The Yarn Kitchen: We have Critical Mass . October 17, 2011. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
  7. ↑ The Great Penguin Sweater Fiasco . Retrieved August 9, 2015.
  8. ↑ BBC video
  9. ↑ Found Items: Pierre the Penguin's Wetsuit . Dabbler approx. April 28, 2008. Archived from the original on March 5, 2012. Retrieved on April 13, 2010.
  10. ^ Robert Leslie: In from the cold: chilly chickens given a winter warmer (BBC article with video links) Retrieved November 23, 2008.
  11. ^ Penguin Foundation: Wildlife Rehabilitation . Retrieved March 7, 2014.
  12. ^ Mary Mooney: Penguin Sweaters: separating fact from fiction . In: The Oregonian . Retrieved March 7, 2014.
  13. ↑ Jonathan Pearlman in Sydney: Australia's oldest person reveals he spends his time knitting jumpers for penguins. In: telegraph.co.uk. February 11, 2015, accessed November 17, 2015 .