Quote:
British servicemen serving
in the South Atlantic
during the 1982 Falklands
War with Argentina were
the first to report a
strange phenomenon among
the
local penguin population.
Servicemen claimed that
when helicopters and
airplanes flew over
colonies of
King penguins, the
transfixed birds would
look up, follow the line
of flight
with their eyes and then
all topple over backwards.
Although scientists have
always been careful to
note there was never any
scientific evidence to
support these reports, the
British Royal Navy sent a
$36,000 mission to
Antarctica to find out
just what was happening to
their
fine tuxedoed friends.
With the help of the Royal
Navy's ice patrol vessel
HMS Endurance and two
Lynx helicopters, a team
of scientists filmed the
earthbound birds'
reactions to planes above
the island of South
Georgia at heights of
between
1,500 and 6,000 feet for
five weeks.
Dr. Richard Stone, of the
British Antarctic Survey,
said the birds seemed to
move away from the noise,
but "not a single bird
fell over after 17
flights."
A Topple on April 1
Although the study found
no evidence of penguins
toppling over, it did
establish a low-flying
aircraft can cause the
birds considerable
distress.
"We found that penguins do
react to flights by going
quiet when the aircraft
approached," said Stone.
"Some moved away from the
source of the noise but
they resumed their normal
activity very quickly."
Over the past few years,
The Royal Navy and the
project became the object
of
many jokes as the story
caught the fancy of the
British media who even
nicknamed the phenomenon
"penguin topple."
The latest findings came
as no surprise to
officials of Britain's
Ministry
of Defense. "The story
that penguins topple over
while watching planes is a
complete myth," said a
spokeswoman for the
Ministry of Defense.
"Every April
First, for the past 12
years, there has been at
least one report about
toppling penguins. I know
of no pilot who has
actually seen penguins
topple."
It's No Joke
But Stone insists his
study is not a $36,000
operation to ascertain an
April
Fools' joke. "We didn't go
down [to Antarctica] to
look at penguins topple,"
he said. "We went to study
the effects of flying
altitudes on penguins in
the Antarctic and
sub-Antarctic."
The preliminary findings
of the study, which were
released today, found
penguins do react to
flights and there could be
long-term implications of
their responses.
"When planes approach
penguins, some of them
move away from the source
of
the noise," said Stone.
"It could affect
reproduction and breeding
patterns
as penguins could abandon
the eggs they have been
incubating and there is a
threat of losing unguarded
eggs to predators."
The team of scientists did
not, however, observe any
loss of eggs in the
course of the five weeks.
He concluded that flights
over 1,000 feet caused
"only minor and transitory
ecological effects" on
King penguins.
