http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/penguins.asp
A Maritime New Zealand spokesman for the oiled wildlife centre in Tauranga said they had received a box of the handmade sweaters and that should be more than enough.
"The vets have expressed appreciation [but] they haven't used any," he said. "They haven't been required and I just don't know that they will be used at all."
A keeper at Auckland Zoo said the idea of making the little birds wear the jerseys might cause them extra stress.
She said the cleaning process strips the birds of their natural oil and can make them cold but the facilities at the centre were set up to cater for this. "They are getting washed and rinsed and then they go into a warmed tent under heat lamps."
Miss Clark said she had never seen a vest on a penguin and she wondered how much the birds would appreciate the costuming.
"Putting something like that on a penguin, it's probably only going to stress it out even more than they already are. These are wild penguins, they haven't had any interaction with humans. There's already enough stress on a bird without trying to put a sweater on it," she said.
Read more at
http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/penguins.asp#SU2H3xVjfWSAoYW1.99
From the International Bird Rescue:
To help the birds stay warm and limit the amount of preening, we only have to do one thing — house birds in a warm, ventilated area. When birds are warm, they reduce their preening because they're comfortable. When they're cold, they're stimulated to preen in an attempt to correct the loss of body heat. Our research and experience over the course of hundreds of spills has shown us that when we keep them warm while they are still oiled, birds do well.
There;s also another hazard to the sweater concept: Any handling or wearing of anything foreign to them contributes to the penguins' stress. Reducing stress is our biggest challenge in an oil spill. Sweaters can be cumbersome, and require a secure fit to ensure that the bird will not become entangled. When birds are kept in warm rooms without sweaters, their stress is reduced, because they do not need to be monitored or handled.
Read more at
http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/penguins.asp#SU2H3xVjfWSAoYW1.99
In 2014 another Internet-circulated call went out for volunteers to knit jumpers for penguins in case of an oil spill emergency, a plea said to have been issued at the behest of the Australia-based Penguin Foundation. But while that organization notes on its web site that they do use penguin pullovers, they "do not urgently require little penguin jumpers for rehabilitation" and that they already "have a good supply of these [jumpers]": We have a good stockpile of jumpers suitable for rehabilitation purposes which we also distribute to other wildlife rescue centres where need be. Little penguin jumpers are also used as an educational tool to teach students and others about the devastating effects marine and coastal pollution has on marine wildlife and the environment.
Please know that we do not urgently require little penguin jumpers for rehabilitation, we have a good supply of these which we use on any rescued oiled penguins and in the event of an oil spill, these jumpers are also sent to other wildlife rescue centres if required.
Read more at
http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/penguins.asp#SU2H3xVjfWSAoYW1.99
= new reply since forum marked as read
