Runaway penguin named Sazanami

漣。。。　I liked " prisoner #337 " better.

Sanzanami could become Japan's biggest superstar zoo attraction since the baby Panda.

Small waves suggest the penguin was bobbing around, so ... Bobby in English, and Sazanami in Japanese!

Sazanami is clever. :clap:

ve tried saying the name to Japanese colleagues and then equating it to 337 and they just look at me blankly (what's new, you may ask). So this name is not as advertised.

Why does a penguin need a name? So you can print some tacky tshirts and squeeze a few bucks out of this "incident"?

Give it a rest Japan Inc.

Tairitsuiken, so all penguins should go by numbers?

"Hey, No.337, STEP FORWARD!"

So you are suggesting penguins actually UNDERSTAND what a human says to them? And that they respond to a given name? As in it would make any difference if they're called #337, sazanami or Bert?

@tairitsuiken,

Where in any of this did you read that the penguin NEEDED a name? As far as NEEDING one, it already had one.

The penguin did something that differentiated it from all the other penguins at the aquarium. As such it now has more "personality" in the eyes of Tokyo residents. THAT is why it was given a specific name rather than just a number, not for marketing purposes.

Some people are just born cynics :D

Looks like he has been placed in solitary confinement or the "cooler". Sentenced to life in jail for a crime he did not commit. He can only be happy to be penguin. Though perhaps the heritage dinners will claim he has always been an important part of their Diet. Hey lets make him PM! The noises he makes have to be more intelligent than Noda chan.