“Dr Ainley, is there such thing as insanity among penguins?

I try to avoid a definition of insanity or derangement…

but could they just go crazy

because they have had enough of their colony?”

 

 

 

세상에서 가장 살기 힘든 환경 중 하나에서 서식하는 펭귄은 정말 놀라운 생명체다. 펭귄은 새들에게 엄청나게 사교적이고, 비대한 자아를 가지고 있고, 항상 번식 활동에 바쁘고, 또 자살하기도 한다. 

아무도 왜 펭귄이 자살하는지 모른다. 때때로, 어떤 펭귄은 아무 이유 없이 얼음으로 뒤덮인 불모지 한복판으로 떠난다. 영양분이 풍부한 물로부터 멀리 떨어져, 그들이 먹고 자란 땅에서 벗어나, 오직 자신의 운명을 맞이할 수 있는 곳으로.*

 

"Well, I've never seen a penguin bashing its head against a rock"

"They do get dioriented.
They end up in places they shouldn't be, a long way from the ocean." 

(..)

One of them caught our eye, the one in the center.
He would neither go towards the feeding grounds at the edge of the ice, nor return to the colony.

Shortly afterwards, we saw him heading straight forwards the mountains, some 70 kilometers away.

(...)

The rules for the humans are do not disturb or hold up the penguin.
Stand still and let him go on his way.

And here. He's standing off into the interior of the vast continent.
with 5,000 kilometers ahead of him,he's heading towards certain death.