In celebration of the Tulsa Zoo's 75th Anniversary and the opening of a new penguin exhibit, it seemed the next logical step for Tulsa was to have its own "Penguins on Parade."

There have been Cows in Chicago and New York, Pigs in Seattle, Horses in Rochester, and now Penguins in Tulsa, with nearly two dozen six foot penguins scattered though out this midwestern city. Each penguin is ornate, originally designed, and meticulously crafted. The parade will be out and about various parts of the city for a scheduled waddling run of six months, after which they will be auctioned off to benefit the Tulsa Zoo.

Photos from Tulsa Zoo site. Go here to see more pictures http://www.tulsazoo.org/FunThings/penguinPix.htm

Actor Richard Gere has committed to star in and director Stephan Frears is in negotiations to direct "Emperor Zehnder", a feature film based on the life of the late Swiss adventurer and world famous penguin photgrapher Bruno P. Zehnder, for Warner Bros. Production of this ambitious feature based on Ned Zeman's article on Zehnder in the January 2000 issue of Vanity Fair (Death Among The Emperors) is slated to begin early next year. Zeman collaborated on the screenplay with writer-director Daniel Bernstein. The script, described by Zeman as "The English Patient" meets "Out of Africa" with penguins and set in Antarctica. It chronicles Zehnder's stuggles against the confines of convention while pursuing his artistic ambitions against enormous odds. It also touches on his romantic life and rise to fame as a world famous penguin photographer and environmentalist. Dubber "The Guardian of Antarctica, Zehnder's love for penguins was so strong, he legally changed his middle name to Penguin. He tragically died in 1997 when he was caught off guard by a sudden and fierce Antarctic blizzard while photographing emperor penguins. He was 52 years old.

In other penguin entertainment news, Mel Gibson has tentatively agreed to play Sir Ernest Shackleton in "The Endurance". A feature length action adventure production, that will be possibly be shot on location depicting the ill fated 1914-1917 Endurance expedition, based on Shackleton's book "South" and Frank Hurley's images.

Capetown, South Africa - African penguins, whose colonies were threatened by a massive oil spill last year have recovered remarkably and are now breeding better than before the accident, according to conservation officials.

An ample supply of fish this summer, and a massive rehabilitation operation spearheaded by thousands of volunteers, has contributed to this unpresidented recovery after the spill which endangered nearly 40% of all the continent's penguins.

"Considering that these penguins went through the traumatic experience of being oiled, captured, transported, force-fed, medicated and living in a totally alien and unnatural environment, an incredibly high percentage of these birds have survived and made the successful transition back into the wild," said Dieter Oschadleus, of the University of Capetown's Avian Demography Unit.

When thick black oil began to spill from the hull of "The Treasure" last June 23rd near the Cape of Good Hope, the largest penguin rescue operation in history was undertaken by thousands of volunteers on the beaches and in various rehab centers. More than 18,000 oiled penguins were picked off the beachs and from the water, and then rushed to rehabilitation centers where volunteers cleaned and fed them for several weeks until the birds feathers had regained their waterproofing. A further 20,000 unaffected penguins in the area were captured and trucked up the coast and released to swim home, buying the authorities precious time to clean up the spill sufficiently before the penguinsarrived back.

"Surprisingly, information for all South African penguin colonies shows that 2001 has been a good year for breeding," said Anton Wolfaardt, of the Cape Nature Conservation. The number of breeding pairs at Dassen Island, near the original oil spill, increased by 25% from last year. This is likely due to favorable environmental conditions that have resulted in a plentiful supply of food in the penguins' traditional fishing grounds.

But, most of these birds who were covered with oil from the original spill could not have survived had it not been for the massive and quick response of the thousands of local volunteers who came to the aid of our flightless friends. In all 90% of the affected penguins survived to waddle home after the clean-up.

To shed a little more light on the penguin situation in South Africa, our very own Penguin Post reporter, Penguin Peter Barham, has filed this report from his home in England.

"We have just got back from our trip to South Africa - part of a project to test a new design of penguin flipper bands. We spent most of our time on Robben Island. It's been a very good season here on Robben despite the major oil spill of last year. The number of nests is up by about 1000 to 6,700. We saw many of the penguins that were oiled and rescued last year succesfully raising chicks, it's good to know that all the hard work by so many volunteers seems to have paid off - but we still have to wait to be sure that these offspring are themselves fertile before we can be sure all is truly well.

A further good sign is that many pairs are managing to raise two clutches of chicks this year. We have seen two pairs that have successfully raised 4 chicks this year. Although, they lay two eggs in a clutch, in a normal year most pairs only manage to raise one of the two chicks. The reason for repeat breeding seems to be that there are more fish around this year than there have been in quite a while. This is largely due to good weather and good fishing management by the South African authorities".

Two macaroni penguins were born this Summer at the Detroit Zoo. The parents of the chicks had been unsuccessful with incubating eggs in previous years, resulting in Zoo officials artificially incubating the eggs and hand rearing the chicks.

Each chick weighs about three pounds and will reach a maximum weight of 8-12 pounds when full grown. The chicks are fed four times a day a yummy fish, krill, vitamins and water milkshake diet.

They will not join the rest of the flock until their first molt which will take place in a few months. The public can see them until then through a behind the scenes video monitor in the Penguinarium at the Zoo.

Macaroni penguins are found on sub-Antarctic islands. There are about nine million breeding pairs of macaronis in the wild, but that number has been steadily declining in recent years and they are now classified as a near-threatened species.

The Detroit Zoo, which is located in Royal Oak (about 10 miles north of downtown Detroit has one of the largest macaroni penguin exhibits in the world. You can visit their website at www.detroitzoo.org

British servicemen serving in the South Atlantic during the Falklands War with Argentina were the first to report a strange phenomenon among the local penguin population. The servicemen claimed that when helicopters and airplanes flew over over colonies of King penguins, the transfixed birds would look up, follow the line of flight with their eyes until the entire rookery would topple over backwards as the plane flew overhead and past them.

Although scientists have always been careful to note there was never any scientific evidence to support these reports, the British Royal Navy decided to send an expedition to Antarctica to investigate our alleged tuxedo toppling 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 flying at heights between 1,500 and 6,000 feet for five weeks. According to Dr. Richard Stone, of the British Antarctic Survey, "the birds seemed to move away from the noise, but not a single bird fell over after 17 flights." Although the study found no evidence of penguins toppling over, it did establish that 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 research project became the object of many jokes as the story caught the fancy of the British media who even nicknamed the supposed phenomenon "the penguin topple." The latest finding came as no surprise to officials of Britain's Ministry of Defence. "The story that penguins topple over while watching planes is a complete myth," said a spokeswoman for the Ministry. "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." But, Stone insists his study is not just a $36,000 operation to astertain the validity of an April Fools joke. "We didn't go down there to look at penguins topple, but rather to study the effects of low flying aircraft on penguins in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic."

The preliminary findings of the study, found that penguins do react to flights, and there could be long-term implications. "When planes approach penguins, some of them move away from the source of the noise," said Stone. "It might affect reproduction and breeding patterns as penguins could abandon the eggs they have been incubating. There is also 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. Stone concluded that flights over 1,000 feet caused "only minor and transitory ecological effects" on the King penguins.

But, with environmentalists concerned about the dramatic growth in commercial air traffic and tourism to the Antarctic region, these findings could be used to establish international quidelines for aircraft activity in the area, so that planes could not significantly impact penguin rookerys and broods.

Like the rest of the world, the British love penguins and apparently $36,000 is a small price to pay, as neither the government nor the Royal Navy wanted to be blamed for doing harm to one of the world's best dressed birds.

A baby penguin found wandering dazed near the drive through window of a fast food restaurant in Australia had to be treated for depression last week. Police picked up the six-week-old bird as it apperently waddled around downtown Melbourne. According to a police spokesman, "Officers were on routine patrol in the Preston area when they found the penguin loitering in a McDonald's parking lot."

But according to Judith Henke, spokewoman for the Melbourne Zoo (where the "Pengburgler" now resides), the little penguin was not exhilarated by its fast food adventure, and had to be treated later for depression."Stress alone can make them very ill, they're not geared up for this kind of adventure, and it's no wonder being disorientated in the middle of a McDonald's parking lot would get anybody depressed." Experts could not say how the penguin came to be waddling the Melbourne streets, but speculated it had picked illegally on a beach and later let out on the city streets.

As compiled by Billy-Ace Baker and Eric Bennett

Antarctica - Suite for Guitar and Orchestra by Nigel Westlake, Featured in the 1992 IMAX film Antarctica. Featured song titled: "Penguin Ballet."

Polar Shift - A 1991 new age music benefit for Antarctica. Featuring songs by Yanni, Enya, Kitaro, Vangelis and John Tesh. Enough said.

The Body Needs to Travel- by Ian Tamblyn. A 1997 collection featuring the song "The Emperors" which is about three emperor penguins who waddle around the ice giving sage advice.

Men Without Hats Greatest Hits - This 1996 collection features their out of print 1982 single "Antarctica."

Liberty - by Duran Duran. This 1990 album by these former skinny tie wearing New Wave wonders includes the song "My Antarctica."

Games People Play - by The Peeches. This 1997 release by this grunge rock quartet features the not so toe tapping tune "The Antarcticists." These guys must have been smoking some krill to record this one.

Carnaval of Chaos - by Gwar. This 1997 album by the glam, heavy metal, World Wrestling Federation influenced Gwar includes the songs "Penguin Attack" and "Antarctican Drinking Song." Considering the band pretends to hail from a secret warrior race in Antarctica, these songs make complete sense. Also, don't miss their 1990 album, "Live from Antarctica."

Alone on Penguin Island - Desmond Simmons. This 1995 collection of avant-garde, art rocker Simmons' songs dates from 1981 -1994 and features contibutions from members of the legendary British band Wire. The title song "Alone on Penguin Island" is track 13.

Penguin Parade - by the Banana Slug Band. This 1995 kids album features 12 songs about various animals, but undoubtedly the best is the track 1 title song.

Everyone knows that emperor penguins like it cold. Now, scientists have determined that these penguins' susceptability to climate change accounts for their decline in numbers over the past half century.

Over the past 50 years, the population of emperor's has declined by about 50%. Using the longest series of data available, researchers have shown that an abnormally long warm spell in the Southern Ocean during the late 1970's contributed to a severe emperor decline at Terra Adelie, Antarctica.

"We knew since the 1980's that emperor penguin populations have been in decline, but it is only today that improvements in the climate-ocean processes, that we have been able to understand why," said Henri Weimerskirch of the French National Center for Scientific Research. The warm spell of the late 1970's is related to the Antarctic circumpolar masses of warm and cold water that circle Antarctica about once every eight years. In response to this cycle, Terra Adelie experiences a warming period every four or five years that generally lasts about a year.

In the late 70's, however, the warming continued for serveral years in what scientists now call the "hot disco factor". Whether it was the result of natural climate variations or an anomaly related to global warming is not possible to scientifically determine, but the general consensus among researchers is that the "hot disco years" were probably the result of man made global warming.

Warmer air and surface temperatures in the Antarctic reduce the amount of ice in the sea. This in turn leads to smaller populations of krill, the emperors staple diet. The less krill to eat, the less penguins, simple as that.

In the early 80's the temperature dropped back to its normal levels for a few years, and the emperor population stabilized. Although, colder temperatures means higher levels of sea ice, as well as higher levels of food, such conditions pose a threat to penguin eggs and chicks, as there is a greater chance that the female emperor cannot make it back to the nest from her feeding in the ocean if her round trip waddle across the expansive sea ice is stretched to far by the increased ice-mass. The female may be gone for months at a time, and the difference of only a couple of extra weeks could be the the deciding factor whether the male eventually gives into hunger and abandons the chick.

So too, warm or cold it's a tough road for the emperors. As researcher Christophe Barbraude notes in a recent issue of Nature, extensive sea ice poses a trade off for emperors. In population terms, its nutritional advantage, which favors higher survival and further reproduction, "outmatches its physical disadvantage of reducing fecundity."

Despite the findings that show a negative effect of global warming on emperors, scientists caution us against making generalizations about the impacts of climate changes on wildlife. For example, a reduction in sea ice is favorable to Adelie penguins, whose populations have dramatically increased during the same years that emperor populations fell. Climate scientists believe that Earth's polar regions are harbingers of the effects of global warming and play a major role in regulating global climate. The Antarctic circumpolar wave, for example is directly tied to draught and deluges of rain in Australia.

The science, however, is still evolving. "We are progressively understanding how environmental variability affects populations, penguin and otherwise," said Weimerskirch.