It is practically impossible to look at a penguin and feel angry – Joe Moore

This #WorldPenguinDay, is different. Today we convey a message from the penguins to the people. Today we will be there for you, we will provide you with some comic relief, we will try to make you smile, we will post some of our comic antics and a few “lame” penguin jokes.

Normally we would use this day to make people aware of the plight of the penguins. We would focus on the fact that the population numbers of most penguin species are plummeting due to a multitude of reasons. But this #WorldPenguinDay is undoubtedly overshadowed by the Covid-19 tsunami.

#WeNeedYouBack – We need you to protect the places that we live, to draft the policies that will prevent exploitation of resources, to stand up and be our voice. We need you to do these things, not just to save the penguins from extinction but because we are all in this together.

Yes, some human activities have caused our populations to nose dive, but it is also because of the generous donations, scientific support and the work of committed penguin people that we are still here.

#WeNeedYouBack We still need your donations and support, because our programmes will not be able to continue without these resources. As the situation in the rest of the world, our programmes & budgets are taking strain. We will try to hang on, but without your support, we will lose our grip.

Look after yourself,

Be a Home Executive – stay at home,

Be a masked wonder – wear your mask if you are out & about

Keep your distance – because distance makes the virus flounder

Legend would have it that this awareness day was created by penguin researchers based at the American research centre at the McMurdo Station, on Ross Island. Researchers noticed that the Adelie penguins began their annual northern migration specifically on this day.  In celebration of this event and to create awareness about all of the different penguin species on the planet, they claimed this day for the penguins. It must be clearly stated that if one was to run a poll amongst people involved with penguins, every day would most probably be #WorldPenguinDay.

World Penguin Day 2020