Oldest man in Australia spends his time knitting tiny wool sweaters for tiny injured penguins: http://t.co/PzVDZ4310y pic.twitter.com/IXPoxt1gyt
— ABC News (@ABC) February 11, 2015
Looking for maybe the cutest dang thing you’ll ever see? Here you go: 109-year-old Alfred “Alfie” Date, Australia’s oldest man, has been spending his time knitting sweaters for injured penguins.
From NineMSN, which has a video of Date discussing his hobby:
When Phillip Island’s Penguin Foundation requested keen knitters to donate their time and yarn to make woollen jumpers for little penguins to wear in the event of an oil spill in March last year, responses came from around the world.
One man caught up in the net was then-108-year-old Alfred ‘Alfie’ Date, the oldest person in Australia and a prolific knitter.
More. Tell me more. I must know more.
Similar in appearance to an AFL Guernsey, the marine-bird knitwear is used in the event of an oil spill. Not only toxic for the birds, the grease mats their outer feathers, allowing water to seep through to the finer layer of down.
Oily birds become distressed, cold and less-effective hunters. They can also swallow the sludge when they pick at clumped-up feathers. Slipping the knitwear on them helps prevent this.
I can’t decide what I’d enjoy more: A 109-year-old man Australian man knitting sweaters for penguins to help them recover after an oil spill, or a 109-year-old Australian man knitting sweaters for penguins just because he, like, thought the penguins might be cold out there on those sheets of ice and might appreciate a sweater. Either way is fine, actually. There are no losers when it comes to penguin sweaters.