Spyke

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45 replies

Which is great news. There are species where births in zoos are in fact statistically significant =/

13
feddit.org

New Zealand also has penguins. But there is no (map) love for NZ.

50

Zealand died unexpectedly and we had to rush out and replace it quickly before the kids got home from school. Don't tell them.

25

NZ penguins are almost certainly counted on the number over Australia.

The fact that each entire continent gets a single number is misleading... But then, that's why we are here.

11
rowdyreply
lemmy.zip

Whenever I see an extinct animal from the past few hundred years I get tremendously sad that we’ll never have the opportunity to listen to a David Attenborough documentary about them.

11

I have great news for you, There’s a documentary series narrated by David Attenbrough called prehistoric planet. And is does exactly this. The next season will be on the most recent period (ie. ice age), so possible we will see these great auks that look like penguins.

13

Apparently you could spot these bois chilling in Southern Spain or Florida.

7
aussie.zone

Ian Brown did a song “There Are No Lions In England”, even though he grew up an hour’s drive from Knowsley Safari Park and Chester Zoo.

5

While that may be true we all know there are no lions in Sweden, he's been dead for awhile now. You can choose if I'm talking about Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden or that poor beast that was taxidermied.

1
lemmy.ca

Arctic actually means land without penguins, and Antarctic means land with penguins.

15
sgareply
lemmings.world

its the other way round for bears i think

12

But the bear referenced there is not the animal but the constellation...

Arctic = towards the bear, so north

Antarctic = the opposite (=ant[i]) direction

2
FundMECFSreply
lemmy.cafe

It’s actually bears. The north is named by the Greeks after the Ursa Major constellation in the north literally “big bear”. So it’s the bear place. While the south is the opposite of the bears.

Happy coincidence it ended up matching polar bear ranges.

10

You're absolutely correct, I was riffing on the commonly mentioned fact you said. Similar to the "mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell." meme people mention often.

2
lemmy.zip

Doesn't 'ant' mean not and 'arc' is without? So it's really closer to 'without penguins' and 'not without penguins'

3

"Arktos" is greek for bear.

The arctis is the region towards the bear, meaning the constellation so north... while the antarctis is the opposite direction (ant(i) = opposite).

7

Serious question: what sort of crimes do I have to commit to be reincarnated as a penguin in Australia but not Antarctica?

9

Hey. The penguins i’ve seen in Melbourne look quite happy.

They even won a photo award ;)

6
Pyr
lemmy.ca

I wonder what would happen if we transplanted some penguins from Antarctica to the arctic. Would they survive?

Maybe some of the more endangered ones could live and thrive up there, and then become a second food source for the polar bears so they don't starve now that there isn't as much ice to hunt seals on.

It's not like there much of an ecosystem up there that an invasive species can fuck up like the toads down in Australia.

5

Assuming they survived would probably fuck with fish populations and thereby the predators of fish and the predators of predators of fish.

4

Ok, but what's the chance of being hatched on each continent? I believe that it's a statistical insignificant amount penguins being born anyway

4

I like these odds. Being a penguin sounds like generalized anxiety with an extra layer of flubber.

3

i asked the internet and antarctica doesn't have ants, it has midges. i'm not sure whether that's better or worse. right now... better.

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