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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.""

23 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Linux Penguins by bartjan · · Score: 2, Funny
    We all know Linux is great...it does infinite loops in 5 seconds.

    -- attributed to Linus Torvalds

  2. Tux, of course by AtariAmarok · · Score: 2, Funny

    Isn't this the place for a lot of comments about the Linux community going around in circles?

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  3. 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.

    1. Re:It sounds like they're healthy. by thagale · · Score: 3, Informative

      Except in the wild, they don't swim all day from dawn to dusk. It depends on the species, but most penguins spend most of the day sitting around on the ice, or meandering about lazily.

      Swimming around in circles all day could be a sign of a problem.

    2. Re:It sounds like they're healthy. by anon+mouse-cow-aard · · Score: 3, Informative
      err, sitting about lazily? I don't think so:


      This isn't the same species, but how about swimming for 18 days at a time, and diving to 500m. That doesn't sound terribly idle. (http://www.penguins.cl/king-penguins.htm)


      For this species, they migrate from Tierra Del Fuego to Brazil. That's got to be a decent swim.
      http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accou nts/sph eniscus/s._magellanicus$narrative.html


      Or how about "The satellite data have already revealed that some penguins swim up to 300 miles from their nesting area to find food while their mates sit in the nests on their eggs. Such a foraging journey can take nearly three weeks, leaving the penguins' newborn chicks at risk of starving before the parent returns. This is particularly worrisome since the number of Magellanic penguin chicks surviving to adulthood has declined in recent years."
      from
      ttp://www.artsci.washington.edu/new sletter/Autumn9 9/Boersma.htm

  4. Word Association by ahknight · · Score: 5, Funny

    I saw the headline and immidiately thought "Linux and Apple?" Sad, I know.

  5. 2.4.42.pre1 by wowbagger · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Alright, who loaded a prepatch kernel on the penguins?!"

    Seriously, consider this strange behavior observed in certain primates: They spend hours swimming back and forth in pools of water, lifting heavy weights only to put them down again, until muscular exhaustion, running for hours in place, and pulling clumps of hair from their bodies with resinous substances. Obviously, they must be deranged.

    Or health fanatics.

    Consider: the penguins would normally spend all day swimming to catch fish. Now, they don't have to - fish are provided with no effort. But some part of the penguin's brain is telling it to swim, so swim they do.

    Have you ever watched any other captive animal? Horses will gallop across the field for no visible reason, dogs will run around the back yard, cats will suddenly run full tilt from room to room.

    Boredom can make animals do strange things.

    Want more proof??

    --
    www.eFax.com are spammers
    1. Re:2.4.42.pre1 by shadowbearer · · Score: 3, Funny

      RTA. This behavior wasn't shown by them until a new group of penguins was introduced to the pool. It's apparently some kind of "copycat" behavior.

      Although I agree with you about strange primate behavior :-) Some of them even sit and stare at moving images on electronic devices for hours at a time ...

      Heh.

      SB

      --
      It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
    2. Re:2.4.42.pre1 by flewp · · Score: 2, Funny

      What is this "outside" you speak of?

      --
      WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
  6. Omaha Hennry Doorly Zoo penguin webcam by ubiquitin · · Score: 4, Informative

    Circle swimming happens every so often in the penguin exhibit at the Omaha Zoo. They have a very nice display, which happens to include a penguin webcam. I think for the most part the Omaha penguins are more laid back than their San Francisco inmates. Also, here is a map of the aquarium where the keep the penguins. Enjoy.

    --
    http://tinyurl.com/4ny52
  7. Oh my God! by orkysoft · · Score: 2, Funny

    "She's stuck in an infinite loop and he's just stupid!" - Prof. Farnsworth.

    --

    I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
  8. Re:Penguin Webcam by SpaceLifeForm · · Score: 2, Funny

    I thought he was flipping off SCO.

    --
    You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
  9. 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 Suidae · · Score: 2, Informative

      Discover magazine just ran an article about some research in this directly with lab animals.

      This is extremely common in lab animals, its called stereotypical or stereotype actions. Mice will spend hours turning backflips or jumping up and down in the same spot. We're talking rep rates of 10's of thousands of times a night.

      This is of course a bad thing from an animal rights perspective, its like lifetime solitary confinement in a ultra-max prision. But these animals are very bad test subjects, their brains don't work right, their immune systems are weak, all their body chemistry is off. One test showed that animals kept in 'enriched' cages (cages with a few simple toys like cardboard tubes) would tolerate 60 times the toxins of their neurotic peers, and can overcome deleberate genetic failures relating to memory more easily.

      These are the kind of animals we are doing brain research on and testing potential new drugs in. Not only is it inhumane, its bad research.

    2. 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.

  10. For a minute there... by Paul+Burney · · Score: 2, Funny

    Anyone else think from the headline that the story was about Linus Torvalds not being able to find his way out from a meeting at Apple headquarters....

    --
    <?php while ($self != "asleep") { $sheep_count++; } ?>
  11. I've got the same problem... by Muad'Dave · · Score: 4, Funny

    I wake up in the morning, drag myself to work, go home exhausted, and do it all over again, day after day. I don't even get free fish!

    --
    Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
  12. 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 ;~)

  13. Did anyone read the date on this story? by nosferatu-man · · Score: 3, Insightful

    January 16, 2003?

    It's a cool story, but about six months late, eh?

    'jfb

    --
    To spur "enterprise Linux," Big Bang, the distributed two-phase commit.
    1. Re:Did anyone read the date on this story? by FroMan · · Score: 2, Funny

      Problem was that slashdot has been in an infinite loop for a while. But, since they are running linux, it's finished already.

      --
      Norris/Palin 2012
      Fact: We deserve leaders who can kick your ass and field dress your carcass.
    2. Re:Did anyone read the date on this story? by John+Q.+Public · · Score: 2, Informative

      The penguins already stopped, back in March.

      But it was amusing while it lasted...

      --
      UserAdvocate: The voice of the user
  14. hhgttg by hitchhacker · · Score: 2, Funny


    It's just the penguins way of saying "So long and thanks for all the fish."

    oh crap. :(

    -metric

  15. Not anymore they don't by azav · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is old news. In fact they stopped swimming about a month ago.

    This all started when some new pengies were added to the exhibit. They started on their little migration and the rest just followed them.

    I think they are done now. We'll have to wait till next year and see what happens then.

    --
    - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...