This penguin is certainly no jackass

CURRENT economic woes prompt memories of the cash-strapped 1940s and ’50s.

Things were tough in the decades after the war and people fled the county in their thousands. You were lucky to get work, ‘job-satisfaction’ was irrelevant and many spent their lives doing chores they hated.

Diasporas are normal in the bird world and avian square pegs in round holes are not unknown. In the most extreme cases species adopted bizarre lifestyles, even aping the behaviours of mammals and fish. Visiting the Southern Cape last August, I encountered two dramatic examples of avian career change. In one species, the bird’s ancestors tried to become fish. The other’s forebears sought to emulate horses.