I am reprinting this as written because it was so charmingly reported!

Michelle Locke / Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — What’s black and white and warm all over? A penguin in a wetsuit, naturally.

Sounds like a joke, but it’s quite serious for biologists at the California Academy of Sciences, who had a wetsuit created for an African penguin to help him get back in the swim of things.

Pierre, a venerable 25 years old, was going bald, which left him with an embarrassingly exposed, pale pink behind.

“He was cold; he would shake,” said Pam Schaller, a senior aquatic biologist at the academy. Pierre’s species of penguin is accustomed to temperate climates, unlike many of their cousins.

Schaller first tried a heat lamp to keep Pierre warm. Then she got another idea: If wetsuits help humans frolic in the chilly Pacific, why not whip up one in a slightly smaller size?

Staff at Oceanic Worldwide, a supplier of dive gear based in San Leandro, were enthusiastic about making a real penguin suit.

“We were really excited to do it,” said Teo Tertel, company marketing specialist. “Anything we could do to help them, we were all for it.”

We have great gifts for penguin lovers – check it out!

Technorati: penguin, penguins, penguin gifts, penguin theme, penguin flask, penguin wetsuit, cold penguin