Wildlife Wednesday: Flightless Wonder

Since today is actor Morgan Freeman's birthday, it seemed appropriate for Wildlife Wednesday to feature the subject of the 2005 documentary to which Freeman lent his distinctive voice as narrator: March of the Penguins. If you haven't seen the film yet, I definitely recommend it.

As difficult as the ordeal of mating and breeding is for penguins, their survival is made all the more complicated by increases in commercial fishing, oil spills, and other man-made influences on their natural habitat. Some species of penguin are in serious danger of becoming extinct. You can read more about the threats to penguin populations here.

If you are interested in lending your support to Penguin conservation efforts, you can, of course, rely upon our friends at World Wildlife Fund to to take up the cause of these incredible birds, and you can symbolically adopt an Emperor Penguin (the species in the movie and in the photo above) through WWF.
I also just found out about an opportunity to adopt an actual Magellanic Penguin in South America (like the one in the pic to the left) through the International Penguin Conservation Work Group. It doesn't actually come to live in your bathtub, but you do get to give it a name. (Kind of a cool idea.)