When one thinks Africa, one thinks of the big five- lions, elephants, leopards, buffalos, and rhinoceroses. Penguins, therefore, are only found in Antarctica and not in a place that gets up to 90 degrees and has no snow.
Yet there we were, standing on wooden bridges staring and hundreds of little jackass penguins, all of which who had their heads tilted up to the sun in order to sun themselves. It was like witnessing a strange sun ceremony only attended by midgets in tuxedos as they stood there, unmoving, staring at the sun. Obviously they missed the memo that we all got in the third grade about how staring at the sun was bad for you.
Once you get over that contradiction, the penguins really are representative of South Africa. On one hand you have the wildlife, the clean, ice cold water, the beaches, the hundreds of penguins with their protected nests all tucked into little rocks or plastic tubes that conservationists have put out for them. However, all through their natural habitat are these bridges where thousands of tourists trample over, taking pictures, photographing them, and attempting to stuff them into bags in order to smuggle them back to the states (as I’m sure half the people on our trip contemplated). Here are these little creatures, just trying to live their lives, while capitalists have divided their native habitats in half in order to turn them into a tourist attraction and a way to make money.
But at the same time, by turning them into an attraction is saving them. The money goes into the maintenance of the park and the protection of them. Their habitats are protected from building and boats, therefore prolonging their lives and giving them a safe place to raise their chicks. Furthermore, all the noise definitely would scare away predators.
And they’re really, really, really cute.
