March of the Penguins
 

The movie just played on the Discovery Channel. A scene at the very end of the flick gives me pause to ask, as the chicks were swimming for the first time:

What's the technical, knowledgeable term for a plurality of penguins? Do they flock upon the water, or are they in pods like whales? They herd together very sociably -- are these a herd of birds?

Is the French commercial for the film on YouTube? It relies on two points: the French title was La Marche de L'Empereur, as in Emperor penguins -- and that in la belle France there was but one... Emperor.

Yep... it looks exactly like you think... and until you've seen it you haven't lived.

La Marche de l'Empereur

:lol:

As for the collective noun, this site suggests:

But these are really boring and I am sure we can do better.

A tuxedo of penguins (on land).
A torpedo of penguins (submerged).
A trajectory of penguins (a big line jumping from sea to shore)

And the ones in school should be a trigonomatory of penguins

Oh wow, that's a cool ad.

Superbe

LOL! The expressions on their faces when sex was mentioned!

BTW, a beautiful movie but once was enough!

Penguins stand on their own urine and feces. I hope they stay in Antarctica - forever.

So do buzzards.

Re: Buzzards....
If you eat it once, you can eat it twice.....
Might a swell stand close to (on) the food.

Penguin eats its own feces.

I don't eat penguin either.

But do you consider penguin to be a filthy animal?

Well, they're definitely dirty. But penguins got a lot of personality. Personality goes a long way.

So, by that rationale, if a pig had a better personality, it wouldn't be a filthy animal...

Penguines don't only live in antartctica.

We even have some in Australia.

And in the Falkland Islands - I used to have an email friend there who would send me pics of penguins just going down the road.

They are a Southern Hemisphere animal however, as the Polar bear (more correctly Arctic bear) is a Northern Hemisphere animal. I was quite irritated when my friend's husband went off to do some work for one of the Arctic stations and people sent him goodbye/ good luck cards with penguins on. Tcha!

Well, now that we've given it away, its a good general knowledge/ lateral thinking question to ask people ... why don't polar bears eat penguins?
Amazing how many don't get it.

Ah well, one of my favourite books is The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Gerrard who was on Scott's fatal trip to the Antarctic, so I have never had a problem remembering which is which.

The book title doesn't refer to the final journey (obviously as all five participants died) but the side-trip he made with Wilson and Bowers to the hatchery of the Emperor penguins, called The Winter Journey in books about Scott. They were man-hauling sledges in the very dead of Antarctic winter with inadequate clothing, inadequate provisions and at one point having their tent blown away in a storm. It's amazing.

I haven't seen the film for that reason, if it makes any sense.

Final few lines in the book:
". . . And I tell you, if you have the desire for knowledge and the power to give it physical expression, go out and explore.... If you march your Winter Journeys you will have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin's egg."