Emperor Penguin at Peka Peka, Kapiti Coast

[Neil Fitzgerald]

If I recall correctly, there were also rock-hoppers and kings in Happy Feet..
I detest the nickname.

[philbattley]

Good - it's not just me being a killjoy then. I know from the Massey Vets that the media will sometimes decide to give a bird a name and use it as if the Wildlife Ward folks have coined it. I think something like Alfonse would have been better.

Phil

[Neil Fitzgerald]

Sandy?

[philbattley]

Ha ha. Like it, though the general public may not share our sense of humour. By the way, is this penguion still twitchable, as in legitimate for a list, and if not, at which point precisely did it stop being so, and why? (And this is an acdemic question as I nabbed it right away!)

Phil

[39tiro]

Good - it's not just me being a killjoy then. I know from the Massey Vets that the media will sometimes decide to give a bird a name and use it as if the Wildlife Ward folks have coined it. I think something like Alfonse would have been better.

Phil

must be a generational thing - to me (older generation and ex psychiatric nurse) 'happy feet' was the nickname given to the major anti-psychotic drug called thioridazine, due to the side effect of akathisia (the inability to remain motionless); so no pleasant / cutesy associations for me with the name.

- another Phil

[Clinton9]

Phil,
I had enough of reading your nonsenses.

Clinton.

[Byrd]

Ha ha. Like it, though the general public may not share our sense of humour. By the way, is this penguion still twitchable, as in legitimate for a list, and if not, at which point precisely did it stop being so, and why? (And this is an acdemic question as I nabbed it right away!)

Phil

I would say the moment it was lifted into the ice-box for transfer to the zoo it became non-twitchable.

On the other hand, if it gets released into Foveaux Strait as has been suggested, does it then become twitchable again or not (given that it has just been released from [albeit temporary] captivity)?

[philbattley]

Clinton,

Please clarify which bit you mean as nonsense. The name given to the penguin irritates me, and apparently others. And we are allowed to have a sense of humour.

My question about ticking a bird is not nonsense. If you see a bird one minute before it is taken into captivity it is tickable. If you see it a minute afterwards, would you still count it? It's a legitimate question that would be important to someone for whom a list was itself important.

But you are welcome to stop reading my posts.

Regards, Phil

[Neil Fitzgerald]

I think I started something I shouldn't have.
I made a bold statement earlier that the bird was "no longer twitchable @ Peka Peka" when it was taken to the zoo. I'm glad I added the last bit, because it is a mater of fact that it was no longer at Peka Peka. Whether it then became twitchable/tickable at the zoo is a fight I don't want to get into. If it is released again, I guess it is as valid as any other translocated bird.

[philbattley]

Hi Neil, actually I had not even noticed that bit. You are innocent of prompting me. I had just been wondering all along how people would regard this penguin now that its circumstances had changed. It's still the same bird, and it has still made its way to NZ on its own. Sure, it might have died by now in which case you'd be into the "can we tick a dead bird" discussion, to which the general answer seems to be no. So what changes about the bird's legitimacy when a human picks it up?

Phil