Once upon a time, there was a penguin called Pieter. Pieter lived in South Africa and he loved to swim, swim, swim in the sea all day long. One day, when Pieter was out swimming, he suddenly saw the water turn black. His feathers began to get very wet and he swam as fast as his little flippers could carry him to the shore. There stood Pieter on the beach looking very forlorn, his feathers covered in thick, black oil. He couldn't go swimming in the sea or eat his favourite food which was lots and lots of fish. As luck would have it, a passing ornithologist, who was out for the afternoon ornithologizing, saw Pieter and took pity on him. 'What a sad-looking little penguin,' he thought, 'I'll take him home with me and look after him.' So the ornithologist tried to pick Pieter up. Pieter was very frightened because he didn't know that the ornithologist only wanted to help him, but he felt too tired and ill to put up much of a struggle. However, with a well-aimed lunge he just managed to sever a major artery in the ornithologist's wrist. Fortunately, another ornithologist happened along and put Pieter in a box and took him to Cape Town where the nice people at SANCCOB took care of him. They gave Pieter a thorough wash and scrub and got all of the nasty oil out of his feathers. They also gave him lots of his favourite fish to eat. Pieter loved pilchards. He also liked the funny things with which they gave him the fish, because when he bit on them they made a strange noise which sounded like: 'Aaagh, the little X!@#$*X tried to bite my <*?%$#@ finger off!'

Pieter was soon able to swim again and his nice clean feathers gleamed in the sunlight. But then two big men arrived, one brandishing a pair of pliers, to catch him. Pieter was very frightened and tried to get away but it was no good. He was caught. Pieter thought they were going to yank his flipper off, but the men only wanted to put a metal band on it. Pieter was very proud of his nice, shiny metal band which had his very own number on it. He thought that the men were very kind really and said 'thank you' by biting off the end of one man's nose. Pieter was confused by all the fuss and noise that followed. Everybody ran about shouting and soon a big white vehicle with 'Ambulance' written on it arrived, and took the man away.

Soon came the time for Pieter to leave. He was taken with lots of other penguins to a sandy beach where he was released. He could go and swim in the sea again and eat as many fish as he wanted. Next day he was back home again on Robben Island, ready for his next adventure.

Sven Iscus & Dee Mersus
Institute of Penguinology
Sardinia

Originally published in Bird Numbers, December 1995.
© Avian Demography Unit, UCT.