Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Great Penguin Rescue: 40,000 Penguins, a Devastating Oil Spill, and the Inspiring Story of the World's Largest Animal Rescue
    The Great Penguin Rescue: 40,000 Penguins, a Devastating Oil Spill, and the Inspiring Story of the World's Largest Animal Rescue
    The Great Penguin Rescue: 40,000 Penguins, a Devastating Oil Spill, and the Inspiring Story of the World's Largest Animal Rescue
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Great Penguin Rescue: 40,000 Penguins, a Devastating Oil Spill, and the Inspiring Story of the World's Largest Animal Rescue

    Written by Dyan deNapoli

    Narrated by Coleen Marlo

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    On June 23, 2000, the iron-ore carrier MV Treasure, en route from Brazil to China, foundered off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, spilling 1,300 tons of oil into the ocean and contaminating the habitat of 75,000 penguins. Realizing that 41 percent of the world's population of African penguins could perish, local conservation officials immediately launched a massive rescue operation, and 12,500 volunteers from around the globe rushed to South Africa in hopes of saving the imperiled birds.

    Serving as a rehabilitation manager during the initial phase of the three-month rescue effort, Dyan deNapoli-better known as "the Penguin Lady" for her extensive work with penguins-and fellow volunteers de-oiled, nursed back to health, and released into the wild nearly all of the affected birds. Now, at the tenth anniversary of the disaster, deNapoli recounts this extraordinary true story of the world's largest and most successful wildlife rescue.

    When she first entered the enormous warehouse housing most of the 19,000 oiled penguins, the birds' total silence told deNapoli all she needed to know about the extent of their trauma. African penguins are very vocal by nature, prone to extended fits of raucous, competitive braying during territorial displays and pair-bonding rituals, but these poor creatures now stood silently, shoulder to shoulder, in a state of shock. DeNapoli vividly details the harrowing rescue process and the heartbreaking scenarios she came up against alongside thousands of volunteers: unforgettable images of them laboriously scrubbing the oil from every penguin feather and force-feeding each individually; the excruciatingly painful penguin bites every volunteer received; and the wrenching decisions about birds too ill to survive. She draws listeners headfirst into the exhausting physical and emotional experience and brings to life the cast of remarkable characters-from Big Mike, a compassionate Jiu-Jitsu champion with a booming voice, who worked every day of the rescue effort; to a man named Welcome, a.k.a. "the Penguin Whisperer," who had the amazing ability to calm any penguin he held in his arms; to Louis, a seventeen-year-old medical student who created a new formula for the highly effective degreaser used by the rescue mission-whose historic and heroic efforts saved the birds from near extinction. The extraordinary international collaboration of scientists, zookeepers, animal rescue groups, and thousands of concerned individuals helped save the African penguins-recently declared an endangered species-from an all-too-common man-made disaster.

    DeNapoli's heartwarming and riveting story is not just a portrait of these captivating birds, nor is it merely a cautionary tale about the environment. It is also an inspirational chronicle of how following one's passion can lead to unexpected, rewarding adventures-and it illustrates not only how people from around the world can unite for a greater purpose but how they can be extraordinarily successful when doing so. The Great Penguin Rescue will inspire listeners to believe they can make a difference.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateOct 27, 2010
    ISBN9781400189632
    Author

    Dyan deNapoli

    Dyan deNapoli has worked closely with penguins at Boston’s New England Aquarium and in the wild for fifteen years. She has been featured as a penguin expert on several television and radio programs, was hired as the content reviewer for three books about penguins, and authored the Penguin chapter for the New Book of Knowledge encyclopedia. In addition to acting as a guest lecturer on cruises to the Galapagos Islands and Antarctica, she has been a presenter at national and international professional conferences. To date, she has taught approximately 250,000 people in the US and abroad about penguins. She is a member of the National Marine Educators Association, Grub Street writing center, and currently serves as President of the Home-based Businesswomen's Network. She lives beside a pond on Boston’s North Shore and her website can be found at www.thepenguinlady.com.

    Related to The Great Penguin Rescue

    Related audiobooks

    Nature For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      New School for Hopperville

      Mar 1, 2022

      New School for Hopperville
      1 min read

    • Article

      Bird-Brained or Brilliant?

      Nov 1, 2022

      Bird-Brained or Brilliant?
      5 min read

    • Article

      Kira’s PIZZA

      Mar 1, 2022

      Kira’s PIZZA
      3 min read

    • Article

      Work In Progress

      Dec 19, 2019

      Work In Progress
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Legend Of Wishpoosh

      Sep 1, 2022

      The Legend Of Wishpoosh
      3 min read

    • Article

      Make a Mask

      Nov 1, 2021

      Need a mask for a costume in a play? Cut a paper plate in half. Ask a grown-up to help you cut out two circles for eyes. Color your plate. Make ears, beaks, or noses out of paper or pom-poms and glue them on. Tape a pencil to one side of the mask, an

      1 min read

    • Article

      Teddy Bears OF THE CLOUD FOREST

      Feb 1, 2022

      Teddy Bears OF THE CLOUD FOREST
      2 min read

    • Article

      Muse News

      Nov 1, 2022

      Muse News
      3 min read

    • Article

      Meerkat Maze

      Jan 1, 2023

      Meerkat Maze
      1 min read

    • Article

      Army of Volunteers

      Jan 1, 2022

      Army of Volunteers
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Tortured Marriage

      Jan 22, 2018

      The Tortured Marriage
      13 min read

    • Article

      67 Ways To Celebrate Birds

      Apr 30, 2020

      67 Ways To Celebrate Birds
      5 min read

    • Article

      Teen Titans Go!

      Sep 2, 2021

      Teen Titans Go!
      1 min read

    • Article

      Ask A Pigeon!

      Jan 1, 2020

      Ask A Pigeon!
      1 min read

    • Article

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER

      Mar 17, 2022

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER
      8 min read

    • Article

      Into The Big Blue

      Jul 16, 2021

      Into The Big Blue
      5 min read

    • Article

      Whale Of A Time

      Aug 9, 2019

      Whale Of A Time
      4 min read

    • Article

      Rambd’s Redfin Mission!

      May 6, 2022

      Rambd’s Redfin Mission!
      6 min read

    • Article

      Turtle Beach

      May 4, 2023

      Turtle Beach
      7 min read

    • Article

      To Fish Or Not To Fish?

      Mar 1, 2023

      To Fish Or Not To Fish?
      5 min read

    • Article

      Spirits Of The Southern Oceans

      Oct 25, 2023

      Spirits Of The Southern Oceans
      5 min read

    • Article

      Code Blue

      Mar 26, 2018

      Code Blue
      10 min read

    • Article

      Remote Learning

      May 11, 2022

      Remote Learning
      12 min read

    • Article

      Rescue At Sea

      Oct 9, 2021

      Rescue At Sea
      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Great Penguin Rescue

    4/5

    4 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Penguins! A fascinating memoir about rescuing penguins in South Africa, and the herculean effort that was.
    • 4/5
      This is a somewhat quirky but enjoyable look at the largest penguin rescue to date. It turns out there are millions of sunken ships in the ocean, plus new sinkings, and they burp out oil over time and penguin's are among the most vulnerable since they can't fly so "penguin oilings" are a common occurrence, particularly in South Africa since there are so many birds and ships. A few dedicated people in the world like Dyan deNapoli are on the front lines ensuring the survival of the species by de-oiling penguins when events occur.As another reviewer mentioned the book has one honking problem the amount of repeated material. It takes many forms, for example saying the same thing 2, 3 or even 4 times closely together. Or in different parts of the book, whole paragraphs are seemingly cut and pasted with re-arrangement. As if deNapoli struck on a good idea revisits it for lack of anything new to say. However, I just let it go as the ramblings of an overly passionate person. Somehow it works in the end as a document of a passionate animal lover, there were times I choked up, real emotion was conveyed. It was published by Free Press which is an imprint of Simon and Schuster "Books for Young Readers" so presumably the repeating is for the benefit of younger readers. More likely the book was poorly edited, or padded for length, or both, but still has its moments and I learned a lot about this area of conservation which is new to me. deNapoli is to be admired.
    • 1/5
      I am a huge penguin lover and was very excited to read this book. DeNapoli was part of an impressive and commendable penguin rescue off the coast of South Africa following an oil spill that put half of the world's African Penguin population at risk. The book has the makings for a great read but unfortunately suffers from an apparent lack of editing. The first several chapters are cloyed by paragraphs that contain sentences which restate the same idea, only somewhat differently. Such lack of editing results in added time just to get through even after we understand the point. Primarily the paragraphs involving self-reflection or statements of feeling are very wordy. Overall the paragraphs could have been tightened. I would have preferred a better edited book and had a sinking feeling just reading it. I wondered, what would others think? In some cases three or more sentences could be condensed into one sentence for a more compelling read. Such lack of editing results in a longer than necessary book and most likely will frustrate those readers who value tight writing. I for one was frustrated. Take the above paragraph in my review as an intentional example of poor editing. I could have more effectively stated that 'deNapoli frequently restates ideas within sentences or paragraphs of each other, though in slightly different ways (or in ways that could have been inferred from other sentences), thus resulting in an overall longer and less effective book. I prefer tighter paragraphs and thus put down this book midway through the third chapter, never to return' I don't believe deNapoli is a writer by trade so I blame the editors here. I hate to turn anybody off from an informative story about penguins, so I recommend giving the book a shot if you aren't like me and suffer from an unlikeable tendency to edit.
    • 5/5
      The author provides an incredible amount of information about penguins!!! But the complete story of this particular rescue of such a large group of them was so detailed and descriptively told! Just amazing. And of course it wasn't just a description of the penguins---it was about the people, the wonderful people, in huge numbers, who worked so hard at this terribly difficult task. deNapoli really gave you a feel for the entire experience---you could almost see, smell and feel the whole thing through her words.After writing the above paragraph I did read the earlier review and yes, there was lots of repetition, but perhaps because I was reading the book in small pieces rather than in more lengthy reading periods, it did not bother me as much---certainly not enough to reduce my rating of the book.