CORRECTED - Australia's penguins all rugged up for winter
Date: 24-May-01
Country: AUSTRALIA
The jumpers, which cover the 40 cm (15 inches) tall penguins from neck to ankle, stop oil-coated penguins preening themselves and ingesting poisonous oil.
And for the fashion-conscious penguin there is a wide choice of colours and designs, even a black and white tuxedo jumper, complete with bow tie.
The Tasmanian Conservation Trust made a local appeal earlier this year for the penguin jumpers after oil spills on the coast of Tasmania, not realising they would be inundated.
"They have come from everywhere, even as far away as Japan. Someone in New York asked for a pattern, but we haven't received it yet," Jo Castle, a spokeswoman for the Trust said on Monday.
The jumper pattern is based on one used for seabirds in the northern hemisphere, only smaller. "It was re-designed for the little penguins in the southern hemisphere," said Castle.
"They (the penguins) are not very happy about them, but they cover them from neck to ankle which stops them preening themselves and ingesting poisonous oil," she said.
Castle said knitters, many old ladies in nursing homes, made jumpers in their favourite football team colours, used scraps of wool to make patchwork jumpers, and some knitted woolly tuxedos in keeping with a penguin's natural style.
