Kiwis cranking out penguin sweaters

Kiwis cranking out penguin sweaters - A New Zealand yarn merchant says kiwi knitters have answered the call for little sweaters for penguins victimized by an oil spill.

The so-called penguin jumpers are meant to keep birds covered with oil from a recent shipwreck warm while awaiting cleanup.

"When you get even a drop of oil on these birds, it opens up a channel (in their coats) so water can penetrate," Cornell University ornithologist Kevin McGowan told ABCNews.com "It's like a hole in their wetsuit."

The Napier yarn shop Skeinz posted a notice on their Web site with a pattern for the sweaters. The result, the owners said in a recent blog, has been a "deluge" of ready-to-wear jumpers.

The posting called the response "really precious and overwhelming."

ABC said an estimated 1,000 penguins have died as a result of the Oct. 5 grounding of the container ship Rena, which spilled about 350 tons of fuel into the sea.

[via - upi.com]

Ali Munandar 23 Oct, 2011

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Source: http://ocimnet.blogspot.com/2011/10/kiwis-cranking-out-penguin-sweaters.html
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