Comments on: Snipers To Kill Penguin Killers in Oz

By: emre

emre — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:19:00 +0000

i hate penguin killers they are doing the same thing every year killing tons of innocent penguins i hate them they have to DIE !!!

By: pjC

pjC — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:15:34 +0000

As a sea kayaker, I’ve often camped on beaches with penguin burrows. Their squawking in the night does not make for a good night’s sleep…

By: jdac

jdac — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:53:16 +0000

I recall being under suspicion of something like that Greg. That was before I un-got religion and was finally saved.

Apparently hanging out with the gay-pagan-artist crowd gets you the wrong kind of attention.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:34:42 +0000

Chickenman normally eats road kill.

I agree. I’m reminded of when the kitties and doggies were showing up half eaten the first time local drought, growing coyote populations, and suburban sprawl met up in California. The first assumption there was black magic and voodoo, but it’s the same idea.

By: Stephanie Z

Stephanie Z — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:23:25 +0000

Good point on the predators. Still, some of the language in the reporting has been so OTT (“murder” and “mutilation”) as to make me wonder whether someone is playing up relatively normal events to mobilize immediate public attention.

Penguin tastes like chicken, huh? Go figure. Although I’d think Chickenman would be on the other side of this.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:12:27 +0000

The foxes are imports as well.

One thing that predators do is this: They pick a prey and stick with it until it is rare. Then they switch to a different prey that is more common. So, you can get sudden shifts if what predators are doing.

Personally, I think it’s the Chickenman. The Chickenman went to Australia and is eating (partially eating) the penguins.

By: Stephanie Z

Stephanie Z — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:59:26 +0000

So the dogs are imports. Are the foxes too? And mutilated, not eaten?

I guess I find myself wondering whether some new type of predation is going on here or whether we’ve just let the situation with these penguins get bad enough that a statistical blip in the numbers killed makes a good excuse for intervention.

By: Virgil Samms

Virgil Samms — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:07:18 +0000

Imagine how shocked you will be when you find out that they dig burrows.

By: Jason Thibeault

Jason Thibeault — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:55:50 +0000

This is awesome on a number of levels.