A group of penguins in the Japanese city of Suzaka, Nagano Prefecture, have certainly taken the example of the Tokyo penguin that escaped earlier this year to heart. A group of 3-month old penguin chicks have made not just one, but several attempts to escape from the Suzaka Zoo, attempting to follow in the footsteps of their hero in Tokyo, and from the characters in the animated film Madagascar. The zookeepers have managed to keep them in, but admit it hasn’t been easy. But all I have to say to the flightless birds is don’t give up the fight, the man can’t keep you down forever!
Earlier in the month, two of the young jailbirds, err, penguins, managed to get out of their pen by jumping off of a pool slide. Zookeeper put an end to that method by attaching boards to the slide that the penguins wouldn’t be able to get over. But only two days later, one of the chicks figured out how to crawl under the fence, a sure-fire method of escape, he thought. But that didn’t pan out either, as the prison wardens sealed off that route as well. And in just the last day, that same clever penguin made yet another escape, this time finding a different place to hop over the fence. Keepers found it only a few hours later swimming in a nearby pond, giving them the finger, I’m sure.
For now the Suzaka Zoo officials say they are keeping the young group of four contained inside in a cage with concrete walls and nets, or at least they think it will contain them. The young penguin’s hero in Tokyo was formerly known as “number 337,” and set the precedent for escapees after getting out of the Tokyo Aquarium and spending nearly three months of freedom in the Tokyo Bay. He was spotted by onlooker many times over that period, but zookeepers, and even the Japan Coast Guard, couldn’t get close enough to capture it. It was caught after 82 days on the loose, and while it was discovered to have caught pink-eye, it was successfully treated and now lives safely behind bars, err, public exhibit.
[via ABC News]