Penguin Society

The coal black, electric yellow, and snow white King Penguin gently woke from its nap. It shuffled off of the gray colored rock speckled with powdered snow. The two webbed feet clinch to the ground as the penguin stretches its body out. At once, it takes off in a bolt towards the freezing water. It bounds and whoosh, it dives gracefully into the water. There is virtually no splash. The penguin shows perfect form as it glides through the water. It swims to the bottom back to the top, from the top to the glass for everyone to see and cheer with excitement, and from the glass to the back to disappear from all’s sight. Then with a sudden burst of energy is pops out of the water and back onto the icy ledge. At once, it sprawls back out onto the rock that it once slept upon. It turns its neck to clean its stomach at a rapid pace. Once it is done this its self-given bath, the penguin relaxes back in to take another nap.

Once the fascination is over, I turn around and look at my surroundings. To the right, there is a black hallway. There is a blue sign saying Little Blue Penguins with a golden yellow arrow. If I would go back to the left, I would exit the exhibit through the clear glass doors with a silver frame. Directly behind me, there are four huge signs taller than me of the different types of penguins exhibited at the Henry Doorly Zoo. All of the sudden I hear, “Look mom, they are feeding them.” I whip around and peer into the glass cage. There are two women and one man dressed in sweat suits that have HDZ embroidered on the chest. They are holding three five gallon buckets of small fish. The man pulls out three fish at a time, picks his target, and launches them one at a time into a penguin’s mouth. Quickly, they go through all three buckets and divide this fish equally between all of the penguins. As soon as they came into the exhibit, they were gone.

After all of the excitement was over, the huge crowd shuffled away. I began to look more in depth at the big picture. There were thirteen penguins sleeping comfortably on rocks and the snowy ground. Ten were either running frantically around or swimming rapidly. There were also some walking around; they would occasionally plunge into the water and swim around comfortably. I began to wonder about penguins and their everyday life. I also wondered if they have different personalities, or if they live a certain way. I also thought about how humans are the same way.

In society, there are three different types of people: the frantic person, the calm person, and the laid-back person. Frantic people are always trying to get ahead in life. They go about their lives and not worry about other people. They want what’s best for them and that’s the only thing they want. They like to be the center of attention. Looking at the penguins, this similarity is very relevant. Three penguins in particular were constantly hustling around the ice. They would run over anything or anyone that was in their way. If they wanted to enter the water and another penguin was in their way, they would shove them overboard, or cut in front of them. In the water, they liked doing tricks and stunts just to make everyone point and stare in amazement. This was really noticeable when the three people were trying to feed their hungry stomachs. The frantic penguins were directly in front. If the lady would turn around, they would barge in front of everyone just to be center stage. I believe that humans are the same way. There are certain people who always like to be in the spot light. They will shove someone overboard just to get to where they want to be. They like getting the most food and attention.

I also wonder if the same is true when it comes to the calm type. This society, this type of person just goes about their business. At times they may like to be in the spotlight, but they will never shove someone out of their way to get there. They will make sure someone else has enough before they take too much. They are the type of person that you tend to like to be around. Seven penguins fit this description. They stood in the back while they were getting their lunch. They allowed everyone else to get what they needed first, and then they took their turn. In the water, they swam gracefully through the water, not to get everyone’s attention, but for the sheer enjoyment of being in the water. They feel no need to be in the spotlight. They like doing their own business and enjoy being intent in life.

I also know that there is the easy-going person is the exact opposite of the frantic person. They sit back in life and let other people control it. It was blatantly obvious with the penguins. The thirteen penguins sleeping were extremely easy-going. When their food was brought to them, they woke up, peered sleepily at the humans, and then laid back down. They knew that once they were done feeding the others, they would personally climb through the dangerous rocks and ice, they would hand feed them. If another penguin would try to bother them and wake them up, they would sit up and snarl at them. The other penguin would get the idea and become scared of them. Pretty soon, they were left alone and no one bothered them. This is the same in the humans; some people just prefer to be taken care of all their life. They like being fed, taken care of, and having everything given to them. It takes all of these different types of people to make the world work.

My thoughts were interrupted by a small blonde haired girl with Hannah Montana on the front of her pink t shirt. “Mommy, I don’t want a blueberry snow cone, I want cherry.” The mother just rolled her eyes and moved on and said, “Ok, we’ll go get you a cherry one.” I thought in my mind, “I wonder if the penguin society is real. Maybe the little girl is the frantic person. She may work everyone just to get what she wants. And maybe the mother is the easy-going type. She gets walked all over by her daughter. She just wants to make everyone happy." As I turn back to the penguins, I couldn’t help but laugh as I saw one penguin push another unexpected penguin straight into the freezing cold water.