OMFG Cute Overload: Penguin’s Wet Suit Lets Him Swim Again

Stories like this send me nostalgically sliding back into my girlhood days of having cheesy ‘Kountry Kats’ calendars on my lavender bedroom walls. The little animals are just so cute I want to hug them and pet them OMG SQUEEE!

Biologists at the California Academy of Sciences have created a wetsuit for Pierre, an aging African penguin who was going bald.

From newsvine:

Unlike marine mammals, which have a layer of blubber to keep them warm, penguins rely on their waterproof feathers. Without them, Pierre was unwilling to plunge into the academy’s penguin tank and ended up shivering on the sidelines while his 19 peers played in the water.

“He was cold; he would shake,” said Pam Schaller, a senior aquatic biologist at the academy.

The little suit fastens at the back with Velcro and has small openings for Pierre’s flippers. In the six weeks since he was outfitted with the suit, Pierre has grown back some of his feathers, gained weight and is acting like his old self again. He’ll be ‘weaned off’ the suit as his feathers grow back.

What is it about animals in clothing? I can’t stand it. This reminds me of when my college roommate used to put frilly little shirts on her Siamese cat, and the cat would just stiffen and fall over like the indignity of being treated like a doll was just too much for her. But we all would laugh hysterically because damn, it was just so cute.

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