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Penguins Stuck In Infinite Loop

Posted by Hemos on from the faster-and-faster-they-go dept.

mjd writes "All dressed up and nowhere to swim! ABC News reports that "the penguin pool at the San Francisco Zoo has been a daily frenzy of circle swimming by all of the 52 birds at once. The penguins start swimming in circles early in the day and rarely stop until they stagger out of the pool at dusk.""

5 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. It sounds like they're healthy. by anon+mouse-cow-aard · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What's the big deal?

    I'd rather have them swim from dawn to dusk
    as they would in the wild, than sit there and gawk at the tourists. They need the exercise. This is probably the best thing that could happen to them. Mind you, I bet they're costing the zoo a fortune in herring.

  2. Noticed similar behavior in polar bears... by andrewski · · Score: 5, Interesting

    At the zoo in Portland, the polar bears engaged in a bizarre, ritualistic dance that they repeated endlessly. I watched the smaller bear walk backwards around a cement habitat element (pillar-like) and then walk backwards over behind a log, do a strange gesture, and then do the whole routine forwards. The larger bear would sit on the log and very slowly swipe at the smaller bear, alternating with frenzied tearing at his log.

    I was photographing them, so I noticed the behavior repeating itself, and I asked my girlfriend if she noticed anything strange. She confirmed that the bears were doing a ritualistic sort of routine. At first we kinda laughed, and then as the bears just kept repeating this same pattern over and over, with almost robotic precision, we both began so feel pretty sickened. It seems to me that they have pretty much gone insane.

    1. Re:Noticed similar behavior in polar bears... by andrewski · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Stereotype actions. I can see that as you take animals with wide ranges / rich social lives out of their purview in cage 'em up, they need to vent their desires for interaction / stimulation / etc.

      IMHO, the Minnesota Zoo is better than most I have been to. Big animals have many acres to roam in, the siberian tiger encloure is enormous. Most days you don't even see 'em. In the summer hoewver, they sit by the huge Plexiglass window and watch the children bathe in the fountain.

      The Henry Doorly Zoo (Omaha) is embarassing, however. No animal has more than a half acre, and their apes and big cats are confined to 20x20 enclosures. The gorillas were especially sad. The women and young were engaded in eating, and were obviously comfortable with the squealing crowd of onlookers. The silverback, however, was just sitting behind a drum cradling his head in his hands, and at one point the crowd thinned, and he looked at me and kind of shrugged, and then wen back to his obviously depressed state. There were shitloads of roaches.

  3. New problem? Old problem? by thomasmd · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wonder if the zoo where the six introduced penguins came from had the same problem? Or if those penguins didn't do it until they got to the new place...maybe they are trying to migrate back to Ohio ;~)

  4. a protest? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I wonder if they, finding no other way to communicate to humans their intelligence, started swimming in circles as a act of organized protest for their living conditions.