Penguins, like kittehs, like tummy rubs. If you don’t get a frisson of pleasure from this video, you’re at the wrong website. It’s Cookie, a baby fairy penguin (Eudyptula minor) at the Cincinnati Zoo, who is being treated for a foot ailment (note the “sock” on her foot).
More information is here.
Hmm. Don’t wish to play the hard-nose, but it looks to me like Cookie simply wants to be fed…
Don’t flatter yourself … your poor perception is not a virtue, certainly not the virtue of realism.
BUT… But… but… I thought there weren’t any such things as fairies…!
“Tickling a penguin” sounds like a euphemism for something… interesting.
I have seen that video several times, and I still think he was trying to mate with the hand, or some other instinct driven action. The “giggle”, if that is what you want to call it, started before contact.
Agreed. The sound it made suggested something else to me too. I wonder if it was just playing and responding to the snapping hand movements. Reminds me of when puppies play fight each other and bark at each other. Kind of just seems like the spirit of the thing to do.
I expect there are a lot of pet behaviors that we anthropomorphize. What are kitty cheek rubs? Purring? (Which both content and very stressed cats do). Kneading? Burying their food?
All of those cute kitty behaviors have cat reasons behind them that don’t necessarily correspond with our human interpretations.
But by the same token, the (evolutionary) reasons behind those behaviors don’t necessarily correspond to what the cat actually feels when performing them.
For instance, it’s well known that cats have scent glands in their cheeks for marking territory. Does that mean that every cheek rub corresponds to a conscious intention to mark territory? No, it does not. It just means the cat got an urge for a cheek rub and felt good on satisfying that urge. So the apparent pleasure of a cheek rub may in fact be genuine, despite its utilitarian evolutionary roots.
A friend of mine summarized cat behavior for me. I asked her why cats rub their cheeks against you. “Because it feels good.” While their may be deeper analysis available that seems to sum it up pretty well.
“What [is] Purring?”
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purr#Reasons
Human children start giggling in anticipation of being tickled.
Your comment about “instinct driven” appears to reflect an older view of low cognitive level among birds that has been contradicted by recent evidence.
I’m simply saying, it is being unnecessarily anthropomorphized, something that Coyne has taken people to task before (chimps showing signs of anguish over a death). This seems far more questionable than the chimp example.
For all you “tickle-doubters” out there, contact the lady who did the video, Patricia Sund at ParrotNation.com.
She does know the difference between mating and tickling. Really.
That is unbearably cute! The flapping wings especially. Just awwwwwww!
And the tail wagging!
Agreed! 😀 That was exactly what I was gonna post as a separate comment until I saw yours!
Tiny nitpick on the post: the penguin is described in the video as male, not female.
Heh, I make similar noises when my tummy gets rubbed.
Too much information?
My life is slightly richer now for seeing that video.
Tickling and worth commenting.