Birds · plate 32 of 60
Penguin
Aptenodytes forsteri
Stands on an egg all winter. Does not complain. Much.
Only 1.0% of people are Penguins. (estimated)
If you're a Penguin
You turn up for the people who matter, in any weather, for as long as it takes. A male emperor penguin stands through the Antarctic winter balancing an egg on his feet, going without food for months while the colony huddles against the wind; you are built for teamwork, for devotion and for cold, in roughly that order.
Emperor penguin colonies huddle so tightly that birds in the middle get too hot and have to shuffle out to the edge to cool down.
The Penguin as a spirit animal
Matching a Penguin says you are a team player in the fullest sense: you do your best in a crowd, standing shoulder to shoulder, taking turns on the cold side. You are devoted, patient and better at endurance than anyone around you. The flaw is that you rarely ask what you want for yourself; you just huddle. An emperor penguin walks tens of kilometers to the colony without once looking hurried. People say the same of you.
Grounded in how the species actually lives; nothing borrowed from anyone's tradition. Why we put it that way.
How to get along with a Penguin
Do
- Show up; attendance is how they measure love.
- Take your turn on the outside of the huddle.
- Share the chores and the food; penguin parents split both down the middle.
Don't
- Don't leave them standing alone; it is the one thing they cannot do well.
- Don't underestimate them because of the walk. Underwater they are a different animal.
When it goes wrong: A Penguin under pressure goes quiet, hunches and endures, which looks like calm and isn't; get them back among their people, feed them and let them talk it out in the huddle.
The Penguin in a relationship
You love by turning up and by taking turns. Emperor penguin pairs share one egg and one chick, trading places for weeks at a time and finding each other again by voice in a crowd of thousands; you are devoted in the moment and realistic about seasons. One winter at a time.
Field notes
Every animal is placed on six personality traits derived from how the species lives. Your answers are placed on the same six, and the closest animal wins. How the scoring works
- Sociability
- 10
- Boldness
- 5
- Energy
- 5
- Curiosity
- 3
- Devotion
- 10
- Roaming
- 7
- Emperor penguins dive deeper than any other bird, to more than 500 meters, and can stay under for over twenty minutes.
- A returning parent finds its mate and chick among thousands by voice alone.
- Most emperor penguin pairs last one season; the next year they usually start again with someone new.
Penguins in literature
- The Penguins — Penguin Island, Anatole France (1908)
- The Gairfowl — The Water-Babies, Charles Kingsley (1863)
- The Penguins — The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Edgar Allan Poe (1838)
Characters from public-domain works. Company, not a verdict.
Closest personalities
The animals whose profiles sit nearest to the Penguin's. If you got Penguin, one of these was probably your runner-up.
Other birds
EagleOwlRavenHummingbirdPeacockFlamingoAlbatrossParrotSwanWoodpeckerFalconOstrichPigeon
Among the 60
The Swiss Family Robinson (illustrated edition), Johann David Wyss (1880). Public domain, viacommons.wikimedia.org.All credits
