Many have heard about the unique employees of the southern Arctic - revolves, or lifts, penguins who save the life of the birds overturned on their backs, helping them to take an upright position again. We found out if there is such a profession.

Usually descriptions of this profession Explain: “Penguins living near polar stations vividly react to flying helicopters. Animals lift their heads and deviate back, and since their neck is short, and the body is clumsy, they often fall on their backs. Penguins cannot turn over and get up independently, so after each arrival or departure to them, a specialist comes to their aid. Otherwise, animals will die "(RBC). Mentioning this profession can be found in Russian and foreign sources ("Channel One", "Russian newspaper", "Work.mail.ru", The Best Book of Bizarre But True Stories Ever, Twitter).

In the English -speaking environment, this story gained fame almost 40 years ago thanks to the popular comic book The Bloom County. In 1986 I went out A miniature about how one of the main characters - Penguin Opus - recalls his childhood in the Falkland Islands. The penguins gathered on the beach, watched the Royal Air Force flying in the sky, and when the planes came from the sea, 2 million penguins lifted their heads higher and higher until they fell on their backs.

According to The Washington Times, the phenomenon of falling penguins for the first time was documented In 1982, in the reports of the British Air Force pilots participating in the war with Argentina for the controversial Falkland Islands. No original reports were preserved, but later some network users who were serving in the Falkland Islands in the 80s and 90s, Confirmed This information. They also added that they played new pilots, forcing them to go into Penguin Patrols in order to raise the penguins they have detonated.

History attracted the attention of the British media, which even Dali The phenomenon is the name: "Releasing the penguin." To clarify the truth in 2001, the British Royal Fleet and the British Center for Research of Antarctic Survey) sent In Antarctica, a mission. Scientists spent five weeks flying over the colonies of penguins in a helicopter. In a hundred hours of flights, not a single tipping Penguin was noticed.

In 2011, the television company RT with the help of Chilean Air Force conducted its own experiment, about which told In the video. At the beginning of the video, the German ornithologist Ankei claims that her duties really include helping overturned penguins. Nevertheless, from the reaction of her partner, it can be assumed that the girl is joking. The head of the Russian polar station "Bellingshausen" also says that the first time he hears about such work. At the end of the fragment it is clear that the plane, flying over the penguin colony, does not have any effect on the birds.

For the first time a pingvin revolving as a full profession Mentioned In the Russian -speaking environment - in the comic book “Legend of the Penguin Revelet”, published in 2005 on the website about the “wings.net” non -letting birds. A series of illustrations tells a comic story about a peremardian pungent, which in his free time “knits sweaters for small Tasmansk penguins”.

But this joke gained wide fame from the presentation of a satirist writer Mikhail Zadornov. In his humorous program The “Penguin lift”, published at the end of December of the same year, Zadornov talks about a rare profession, which allegedly exists only in Antarctica on a area belonging to Russia. In his manner, Zadornov gives a joke for the truth.

After this performance, the profession began mention various media and portals about employment - already with the attached description job descriptions, working conditions, requirements for candidates and proposed salaries (from 140,000 to 490,000 rubles per month). And in the UK, such attention to the problem of overturning the penguins even prompted the Edinburgh zoo to officially refute information about the presence of a lifter in the zoo.

In the end, it is worth noting that the penguins, although they look clumsy, are quite capable of their independent position on the stomach and back, which can be seen by watching the video (Here And Here).

So, the penguins do not threaten death from overturning, so they do not need professional revolves and lifts. This is nothing more than a joke of British pilots, which turned into a city legend retold to the wide Russian public Mikhail Zadornov from the presentation of the Wings.net website.

Legend

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. The Guardian. Official - PENGUINS DONIT Topple Over
2. Snopes. Do Penguins Fall Over Watching Airplanes?
3. Snopes. DOES Australia’s Oldest Man Knit Sweaters for Injured Penguins?