Easter!

Today is Easter day, which I actually love because of the... food. Ham, sausage, eggs, salads - for such things it's worth living. :) I also really like spending time with my family. It's always funny and every year I 'get to know them again'. Anyway, I hope that I won't put on weight too much, just a little bit would be ok. :)

So... HAPPY EASTER FOR EVERYONE!

Is it possible?

Few days ago I heard a story about a penguin which swims 2000 miles every year just to see the man who saved his life. I was really moved while reading it and I believe you will feel the same:

In 2011, a Brazilian man found a Magellanic penguin dripping with oil and starving by his home on an island near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After cleaning him up and feeding him back to strength, an inseparable friendship was born.

When Joao Pereira de Souza, 71, let the penguin back into the sea, he thought their paths had strayed for good. However, to his surprise, the penguin returned to the island a few months later and followed him back to his home.

Every year since, the penguin spends eight months of the year on the Brazilian island with his new companion, only returning to the Patagonian coast in southern Chile and Brazil to breed in spring. It’s reported by the Wall Street Journal that this journey is around 3,200 kilometers (2,000 miles).

De Souza, a retired bricklayer, has named his new pal JinJing.

“I love the penguin like it’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me,” de Souza told Globo TV. “No one else is allowed to touch him. He pecks them if they do. He lays on my lap, lets me give him showers, allows me to feed him sardines and to pick him up.”

According to the IUCN Red List, the Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) is categorized as near threatened species. While it’s not unheard of for the penguins to migrate up to Brazil, there are few reports of individuals heading as far north as Rio de Janeiro in normal circumstances.

Mario Castro, a local fisherman, told the Wall Street Journal: “The funniest thing is, the penguin might stay here for a week, then it will walk down to the beach and leaves. It spends 10, 12 or 15 days, then comes back to the same house,”

Speaking to The Independent, biologist Joao Paulo Krajewski, who interviewed de Souza for Globo TV, said: “I have never seen anything like this before. I think the penguin believes Joao is part of his family and probably a penguin as well. When he sees him he wags his tail like a dog and honks with delight.”

It's just unbelievable and at the same time beautiful. I would never thought that a penguin could be so emotional and devoted. Animals are better creatures than we, people, would ever be. ;)

A day off

Today I didn't go to the university because I was so tired, that I couldn't get up... ;) Instead I did the laundry, studied and read the article from nationalgeographic.com
Check it:

"A Switzerland-based computer programmer and amateur cyclist had the ride of his life
Friday, when he was joined on the road by a sprinting wild ostrich. 
In the GoPro video he made of the encounter, "you can hear me laughing from my bike," says Oleksiy Mishchenko, who lives in Zurich and works for Google. "I thought I was going to fall off."
Mishchenko was spending a week's vacation in South Africa to cycle in the Cape Argus
Tour. On Friday, he and some friends rode out to the Cape of Good Hope, at the southern
tip of Africa. The road was deserted.
Out of the corner of his eye, Mishchenko saw a pair of ostriches at the side of the road,
one male (with darker colored feathers) and one female (with lighter feathers). Suddenly,
the male jumped onto the road. He ran after Mishchenko's friends, while the cyclist filmed
the "race" from behind.
Mishchenko says the cyclists were pedaling downhill and were going about 30 miles (50
kilometers) an hour. The big bird had no trouble keeping up, since they have been clocked
over 40 miles (70 kilometers) an hour.
"It didn't cross my mind that it could be a threat," says Mishchenko. "The guy seemed
totally cool. I don't think he was scared, because he didn't try to change directions or
escape."
Eventually, the ostrich peeled off.  
The cyclists finished their trip to the cape. On the way back, they saw the ostrich standing
near the side of the road. Mishchenko adds that there is an ostrich farm in the area,
although he says the footage was made inside the boundaries of the Table Mountain
National Park. (See an ostrich vs. a jackal vs. a vulture.)
"I have never seen anything like this before," says biologist Craig Packer, a National
Geographic explorer and professor at the University of Minnesota who studies African
wildlife.  
"I've never seen people on bicycles near ostriches before," adds Packer, who has made
close-up pictures of the birds through his "Serengeti Selfie" project. "We don't know what
was going on in that bird's mind."
Since the animal's face isn't very visible in the video, it's especially difficult to try to guess
its thoughts. It doesn't look like it was acting aggressively, since it wasn't lunging at the
bikers, Packer says. It's possible it was confusing the cyclists with female ostriches, or
perhaps it was simply "caught in traffic" along the road. Sometimes animals do end up
going along with the flow of vehicles or people for a while, unsure of a safe place to make
an exit, a bit like a teenage driver.
"Maybe he was trying to show off to his girlfriend," suggests Mishchenko.
That's possible, says Packer, although the birds normally try to impress mates by
intermittently flapping their wings and making a booming noise, neither of which is seen
in the video.
"It's so puzzling what is going on," says Packer.
Ostriches remain relatively plentiful across much of Africa, although they
are usually wary of people."

I'm still resting

A new semester has just started and... I'm still resting. ;) I can't force myself to learn especially after so many exams. But that's ok as long as I don't get any bad marks.


When you don't want to learn, just don't.