Brits Cooperate In Their Conquest
Oh the shame of it. The British are yielding to dark forces arrayed against them. They are taking the invaders in and nurturing them. They are promoting their own conquest in a misguided attempt to be kind and civilized. They are allowing the uncontrolled growth of the very forces that will eliminate them. Are we writing about Londonistan? Nah, that's been done already. We're talking something even worse.
Penguins at London Zoo are breeding like never before after their living quarters got a much-needed makeover.
Since 1934 the zoo's flock of South African black-footed penguins have lived in the stark modernist enclosure designed by Russian architect Berthold Lubetkin.
But while the white concrete design featured in advertisements, movies and fashion shoots, senior bird-keeper Tim Savage said the enclosure was making the birds unwell.
"Walking around on concrete all day was not very good for their feet or their joints," Mr Savage said.
"Also, although they are African penguins and are used to tolerating warm temperatures, because it's like a circle all the white walls used to reflect the heat into the middle and it used to get incredibly hot."
However, the main problem was that the poorly ventilated nesting boxes in the old compound were causing the penguins to come down with aspergillosis - a fungal lung infection common in penguins.
Their chicks had to be hand-reared by keepers because their underdeveloped lungs made them especially susceptible to the infection.
So in Nov 2004 the penguins were moved a bit closer to nature in a new, more stimulating enclosure, featuring sand, gravel, boulders and plants.
A deeper pool meant the birds could be fed by having to catch fish thrown to them in the water.
The new enclosure also included conventional but well-ventilated nesting boxes.
The penguins have thrived in their new environment and have even started digging their own nests under plants or rocky outcrops.
The result has been a penguin breeding boom at the zoo.
You poor, blind fools. The fungus was keeping them under control. Now the flightless waterfowl squadrons of the animal uprising have a new and improved breeding ground. You're doomed. Doomed we tell you.
