Last month, there was an oil spill in New Zealand, a country with one of the largest populations of little penguins. Little penguins are the smallest of all penguins and only grow to be 12-13 inches tall. Over 300 penguins were covered in oil and had to be cleaned.
Penguins love preening themselves (licking at their feathers) and the veterinarians at the Wildlife Centre in Tauranga had to come up with a way to prevent the penguins from ingesting oil so they designed knitted sweaters for the penguins.
The sweaters did double duty, preventing them from ingesting oil and keeping them from freezing after they were cleaned.
We love this story because people in the community knit hundreds of sweaters in a day to save their feathered neighbors. This inspires us to think of how we can use our talents to help others this holiday season.
Update 12/9:
The first 49 penguins were released back into the wild last month after being cleaned and going through a six hour swim test to make sure they were ready for life back in the wild. Check out the video of the penguins being released below: