Penguin Habitat (2)
"Don't they look adorable, all bunched up and waddling like that?"
The closer we drew to the island, the sharper the penguins came into view, and Noona's eyes curved into a soft, delighted smile. They were huddled together, swaying as they waddled, and a few of them were rubbing their bodies against one another as if to show affection.
But the nearer we came, the more clearly their voices carried — and they were nothing like the scene suggested.
"You bitch! These feathers — whose are they!"
"W-why are these on me?"
The rubbing, it turned out, was a jealous shoving match.
"I'm dyin' of heat."
"But the water's cold."
And the swaying waddle was nothing but indecision, caught between the heat and the cold.
I was staring blankly at the sheer absurdity of it when a stir began to ripple through the penguins.
"A human!"
"Run!"
The boat's engine was kicking up quite a racket as we approached, and at the sight of us the penguins looked ready to bolt.
"Stop!"
I brought the boat to a halt in a hurry.
"I'll go ahead and calm the penguins first. Please come when I give the signal."
If they fled for no good reason, we'd have a problem. We were here to put their habitat in order — if the sight of humans startled them into abandoning the place altogether, the whole effort would be pointless.
Once the boat was stopped, I transferred to a small dinghy and headed for the penguins alone. The weather was better than I'd expected, and I was able to bring the dinghy right up beside their habitat without the slightest trouble. I had no idea how to handle or secure the thing, of course, so once the water was shallow enough I had no choice but to jump in.
"Hey. I'm coming over — go on ahead and tell them not to run, will you?"
"Got it!"
At my word the penguin flapped its wings and dove into the sea with a splash. The carefree attitude it had shown that morning didn't exactly inspire confidence, but I had no other option, so I started toward the colony. Hauling up clothes gone heavy with seawater, I trudged closer and found the penguins packed together, every one of them staring at me.
"A human! A human! We're gonna get eaten!"
"We gotta run!"
"They said don't run!"
"They said they're gonna give us somethin' good!"
Clustered tight, they muttered among themselves and watched me with open suspicion. Fortunately, the penguin I'd sent ahead had done its job properly, and not a single one of them fled at the sight of me.
"I'm not going to eat you, so there's nothing to worry about. I won't eat you, I won't hit you, and I won't bother you."
"For real?"
"Yeah. For real."
I nodded as I said it, putting all the sincerity I had into it, and their wariness vanished on the spot. Curiosity rushed in to take its place.
"First time I've seen a human!"
"You too? Me too!"
Several penguins closed in around me and, bright with curiosity, started pecking at my pant cuffs and shoes. They were so small, and they weren't actually attacking, so it didn't hurt — but honestly, it was a little irritating. I eased the ones clinging to my side away and explained why I'd come.
"Today, those humans over there and I are going to clean your home. That all right?"
"You tryin' to steal my egg?"
"……Not stealing it."
"You tryin' to steal my treasure?"
"……Not stealing that either."
"Then it's fine!"
Anything was acceptable, apparently, so long as we weren't after eggs or treasure. The penguin's attitude drew a snort of laughter from me, and I waved toward the boat. It roared back to life at once and began closing in on the habitat.
I waited among the penguins, and before long the boat came alongside, people climbed down, and they made their way over to where I stood.
"He says he really never thought the penguins wouldn't run."
Roberto, who had led the group over to me, was looking at me in open astonishment. I gave a small laugh, as if it were nothing, and asked the guide to interpret.
"I've gotten them to cooperate with tidying up the habitat. They won't get in the way of the cleaning, or of shoring up anything that's about to collapse. In return, though, no one is to touch their eggs, or anything they consider treasure."
Once my words reached him through the guide, Roberto shouted an "Okay!" as if that settled everything, and set the people in motion. They picked their way through the penguins in droves, gathering up every kind of marine debris they could find.
"Kyeeeeek! My treasuuure!"
Whether some of that debris had been mixed in with the penguins' treasures or not, a few people did end up getting thoroughly pecked. I paid them no mind. They had their work, and I had mine.
"Penguins, assemble!"
"Gather 'round!"
At my call they came swarming, and in a blink a hundred or so penguins had packed themselves into a solid mass around me. Even as they crowded in, they stared as if to ask why I'd summoned them. Meeting those looks, I took out what I'd prepared beforehand.
It wasn't anything special. Just trash — the sort you could find anywhere around here. Marine debris, specifically: plastic bags and other plastics drifting on the sea. They were mistaking the stuff for food, eating it, and dying because of it, and I meant to do something about that. I couldn't actually solve the marine trash itself, so I'd decided to teach the animals not to eat it.
"Any penguin know what this is?"
"It's food!"
"It's treasure!"
"Is it yummy?"
"No!"
Eyeing what I held, they each offered up their own ridiculous answer. I rejected every one of them and waved the debris around so they could all get a good look.
"This is the kind of thing that gets you killed."
"Kyeeeeeeek!"
They shrieked and recoiled from me. They scrambled back so frantically that several toppled over and rolled across the ground.
"Good grief."
I set the fallen penguins back on their feet, wings and legs still flailing. One of them, though, seemed to have taken a real shock; it had fainted with its beak hanging slightly open.
"I-it's dead!"
"It's not!"
As they looked ready to bolt all over again, I denied it in a rush and shook the fainted one awake. It must have only passed out from the momentary fright, because it soon rattled its head and came to.
"It came back to life!"
"It wasn't dead!"
A wave of exhaustion hit me as I settled them down. Fortunately they were good at doing as they were told, so calming them wasn't hard — even if they were scatterbrained enough to qualify as a genuine pain in the ass.
Once they were calm, I fluttered the marine debris in front of them again.
"This can kill you, but it doesn't always. It kills you if you eat it."
"So we shouldn't eat it?"
"They said you die if you eat it!"
"I ate some last time! Am I gonna die? Kyaaang!"
"Kyaaang! My friend's dead!"
"Haa……."
A sigh broke out of me as they threatened to collapse into a sea of wailing. I still had to finish the explanation, which meant calming them yet again. I pulled aside the one insisting it had eaten plastic, then went on.
"Once you eat this, it stays in your belly. It doesn't digest. Then you're hungry, but you can't eat enough, and you starve to death. I'll take care of you, so don't worry!"
Having headed off another panic from the penguin who'd eaten plastic, I began teaching them to tell marine debris apart, starting with plastic and plastic bags.
"Anything floating around in the sea that doesn't react at all when you poke it — you must not eat it. Understand?"
Perhaps because they grasped that their lives depended on it, the penguins followed the lesson with remarkable enthusiasm. After keeping at it for a while, I looked them over, ready to see whether any of it had stuck.
"Let's find out if you've actually learned something. A test. Go to the sea right now, and each of you bring back one thing you think you shouldn't eat."
"Let's gooo!"
At my word they poured into the water in a rush. A short while later they returned with every sort of object clamped in their beaks, and I checked what each one had brought, one by one.
"Right. You shouldn't eat this. Got it?"
"Got it!"
Most of them had taken the lesson in properly and come back with nothing but things that couldn't be eaten.
"This one! Can't eat it?"
"Uh…… yeah. You can't eat this, so I'll take it."
What that one had brought me was a hundred-dollar bill. Before I quite realized it, I was quietly cramming the thing into the pocket of my life vest. I gave its head a good scratch by way of praise, then turned to the others.
A few who were still too young to tell one thing from another had brought back the occasional clump of seaweed, but most of them were showing the effects of the lesson.
"From now on, you have to teach your chicks, too. That they mustn't eat it. Understand?"
"We'll teach 'em!"
I was smiling at the way they answered in chorus when Roberto and the guide came over. Roberto spoke quickly in a language I couldn't follow, and then the guide translated.
"He's asking if you really succeeded in teaching the penguins. Did you actually succeed? Honestly, I was half afraid it wouldn't work myself."
"Well…… as you can see, it worked. The ones that aren't fully grown still seem a little mixed up, but the adults are sorting things out just fine."
At that, the guide — and Roberto, once the translation reached him — could not stop marveling.
"Anyway, is the habitat cleanup finished?"
"It's nearly done. We still had the marine debris to clear, but then the penguins suddenly picked all of it up. I think we just need to sort through what they brought over here."
So that was where they'd fetched it from. They'd gathered up the debris strewn around their own home.
"Well, it's proof they're telling the difference properly, so isn't that actually a good thing?"
"That's true, too."
I went on chatting with Roberto through the guide about this and that, and before I knew it people were drifting together one by one, as if all the work had been wrapped up. I watched them for a moment, then caught everyone's attention.
"You've all worked hard, so let's at least get a photo to remember it by. Anyone want a picture with the penguins?"
The instant the guide interpreted my words, hands shot up all around.