Last month we passed along an account, found at a penguin-obsessed site on the Web, of British Air Force planes "bowling" over many curious pengins at once by flying low over the animals. Well, we were wrong. The British Antactic Survey (with a URL too long to repeat) has a page titled "Penguins do not fall over!" that debunks the story in detail. The gist of it:
Dr Stone carried out a rigorous experimental study to examine the ecological effects of Lynx helicopter overflights on breeding king penguins at South Georgia during December 2000. Two study sites were selected: Antarctic Bay and Possession Bay. At Antarctic Bay there are about 700 pairs of breeding King penguins and at Possession Bay there are about 400 pairs. Overflights were undertaken at Antarctic Bay only, with Possession Bay acting as an undisturbed control site. The experimental work at Antarctic Bay took place over eight days and involved a series of overflights of specified altitude, direction and speed. Overflights took place on five of the eight days. A total of 17 overflights were conducted between 5800ft and 750ft, starting at the highest altitude (5800 ft) and coming down with each flight to the lowest altitude (750 ft).
On the ground, Dr Stone and his assistant camped near to the Antarctic Bay penguin colony. Video footage was taken of the penguins before, during and after the overflights, using a system of four video cameras connected to a video recorder. The video allowed the behavioural response of the penguins to the helicopter flights to be recorded and will be analysed using special computer software back at BAS headquarters in Cambridge, UK during Spring 2001. Audio recordings of the helicopter overflights were also made, and adult penguins and chicks were counted to determine breeding success.
During the study no king penguins fell over in response to any of the helicopter overflight.
Perhaps both we and Dr. Stone could have saved ourselves some trouble if we had checked the Urban Legend Reference Pages (www.snopes2.com). The penguin bowling legend is debunked there in the /critters/wild/ directory. With casual authority it says, "This tale about bemused penguins and the pilots who toy with them has been part of Internet lore since 1994."
We thank Jeff Gerhardt of The Linux Show for pointing us in a corrective direction.
-Doc Searls