Every year on April 25, World Penguin Day is celebrated all over the globe. This day presents a good opportunity to provide awareness about the penguin species and the challenges that they face for their survival including retreating polar ice and depleting stocks of krill.

In honour of this great occasion, Dyan deNapoli who is popularly known as “The Penguin Lady” tells us about her hard work that she did in saving the lives of nearly 20,000 penguins during a rescue operation that took 20 years ago.

All the penguins were transported safely after a massive oil spill from the bulk carrier Treasure north of Cape Town, South Africa during 2 July 2000. Not only this, but she has also explained about her experience of saving so many birds during this rescue operation and what all did she faced during this phase.

Now, let me tell you about her ‘Penguin Rescue’ experience:

Sinking off a cargo ship creates an oil spill

via: Thepenguinlady/ Twitter

It was during summers of 2000 when she has got an urgent call from South Africa from the manager of SANCCOB, a seabird rescue centre in South Africa, Cape Town. The manager told that the Penguins were in trouble due to the oil spill happened in the region due to the sinking off a cargo ship in the ocean off the coast in Cape Town.

Nearly 1300 tons of fuel oil flown into Robben Island which is the primary habit of penguins. The oil has covered 20,000 penguins.

It was after that SANCCOB has announced the launch to carry out a rescue operation to save the life of all the penguins that were badly oiled by the thick and toxic oil. Even, there were 1000s of volunteers who were up for help but they couldn’t d anything as they had no experience.

After 2 days, she boarded the plane to South Africa to take part in this biggest ever Penguin Rescue operation.

A deadly silence of penguin

via: Thepenguinlady/ Twitter

A large warehouse had been converted into a rescue centre for the oiled penguins outside the Cape Town. The rescuers had also set up so many makeup shift pools which had the ability to hold 100 oiled birds at once.

She told when she stepped into the building, she couldn’t believe what she saw there. Nothing except the voices of people she could hear. The penguins were like dead silent. At that moment, she felt so much overwhelmed.

Her heart ached for those distressed birds and cleaning them looked like an almost neatly impossible task at that moment. But, all the volunteers including her were treating them like doctors in an emergency room.

How did she manage to clean oiled penguins?

via: Thepenguinlady/ Twitter

Cleaning them wasn’t easy. The birds were sprayed with a degreaser and scrubbed with warm, soapy water. Then they were rinsed under a hose. Almost it took around an hour to go through the whole process. Do you know it took a month to bathe all the 20,000 birds at the centre in spite of having 12,500 volunteers?

The oil spill began to spread which led to another crisis

Saving thousands of oiled penguins is hard to do when you’re so #distractinglysexy in your enormous green oilskins… pic.twitter.com/3GtbMsgSxO

— Dyan deNapoli (@thepenguinlady) June 11, 2015

Oil from the spill had started to spread north towards Dassen Island. It had become almost impossible to save a number of birds as they already have 20,000 penguins in their hand. This is because they do not have enough resource to save them.

via: Twitter

To move out of the situation, one researcher suggested moving all the penguins from Dassen Island to Port Elizabeth. And you know what the plan worked and all the penguins swam home safely which also removed their oil and they were saved luckily.

It was one of the biggest ever penguin rescue operation in history

The entire penguin rescue operation took almost 3 months. It was hard for them to believe that they have managed to save such a huge number of birds from such a horrible incident. What was most inspiring for me was the hard work of volunteers.

She said, “As the Penguin Lady, I’m used to facing such hazards to care for the animals I love. What I didn’t realize was how many other people care for penguins too”.

#Penguin smackdown in #Antarctica! Think penguins are sweet? Think again! Fights often break out during breeding season over mates or nests. pic.twitter.com/dp7rtIljji

— Dyan deNapoli (@thepenguinlady) January 16, 2017

News source: Guinness World Records

Branded products like Gucci, Prada, Armani, Versace and many others are literally everyone’s favourite. These are your first preference when you are shopping in the mall weather for your family friend or for yourself. All of the brands which I have mentioned here are extremely popular across the whole world and the reason you know it’s because of the quality they are providing.

It’s true that everyone can’t enjoy these products as they are meant for high-end customers who really earn very well. But have you ever wondered how do the owners of these fashion brands look in real life? Not sure?

Have a look below at the faces behind popular and expensive brands

1. Vera Wang

via: Hooked on Everything

She (Vera Wang) is one of the most famous wedding dress designers. Vera Wang was born and brought up in New York City. She had worked at the Vogue Magazine as the youngest editor before starting up with her own brand. Go and try out her dresses if your wedding is near.

2. Giorgio Armani

via: Architectural Digest

Armani is the most successful designer in Italy. He is well known for his tailored clothing all over the world. Do you know that the red carpet fashion was pioneered by Mr Armani.?

3. Marc Jacobs

via: The Independent

Marc Jacobs is the popular designer who is known for his peculiar styles in the feminine. He was also awarded as the Best Women Designer of the Year in the year 2016 by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Won’t you try her dresses?

4. Gianni Versace

via: Wall Street Journal

Well, this fashion designer has learned basic sewing from her mother and later he started his own boutique. He was one of the first designers who related music with fashion.  His designer works were mostly inspired by pop and contemporary ethnicity.

5. Miuccia Prada

via: Vanity Fair

Miuccia Prada is the head designer of the brand, Prada. She is best known for connecting fashion sense with art. She has also been chosen among one of the best-dressed women of the world. Her brilliance can be easily seen by her designer dresses.

6. Calvin Klein

via: WWD

He is the popular man behind introducing undergarment fashion. He is responsible for bringing such a drastic change in the fashion industry. His brand is also well known for its other products which include accessories, perfumes and clothes as well.

7. Roberto Cavalli

via: Racked

Do you know he is a school drop out? He left his schooling to continue his passion for studying weaving techniques and to start his own business. He presented his very first collection at the age of 32. After that, he opened his own boutique named Saint-Tropez and which is now known for his sexy designs.

8. Michael Kors

via: Success Stories

Michael is popularly known for his best and seamless designs. He was born in the city of Long Island. You might be shocked to know that he began learning the basic norms of fashion at an early age of 5 when re redesigned his mother’s wedding dress.

He launched his brand long back in 1981 and his fan base includes Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton as well.

Not everyone is encouraged to protect the environment. It takes a lot of courage and effort to take initiative in order to secure our planet. There are a plethora of organisations that are doing a great job to save the earth from the pollution caused by humans which affects our planet earth.

But today, I will introduce you some of the environmentalists or you can say who is just like a superhero in real life when it comes to saving our precious nature. They have taken the bold steps to clean and maintain a healthy way in every way possible.

Scroll down to know about them more:

1. Mansukhbhai Raghavjibhai Prajapati

via: India Times

He is the founder of Mitti Cool Fridge, a refrigerator which is made up of only clay and nothing else. The mini refrigerator can hold perishable items for a week and is able to cool water and milk. It is extremely cheap and is a life-saver to many villagers of the country. I think it is really one of the coolest inventions known till now. 

2. M. Y. Yoganathan

via: Reader’s Digest

M.Y. Yoganathan is a conductor by profession. He works with the Coimbatore Transport Corporation and he does not know how to read or write. Despite his inability to read and write, he has planted more than 38,000 trees over the past 26 years.

Apart from doing this, he also teaches students the importance of environment conservation in schools across Tamil Nadu.

3. Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal

via: The Better India

He is a saint and also a social worker in real life, who took the pledge to clean the dying Beas river of Punjab. He also cleaned Kali Bein river bed and brought to life. He is popularly known as ‘Eco Baba’ among his followers.

4. Shubhendu Sharma

via: YouTube

He is truly an inspiration to most of us. He kicked off his high-end job to start ‘Afforestt’, a company that makes a natural forest in small places using the unique Miyawaki methodology to grow saplings.

By implementing this method, he has managed to convert 48 barren lands into a self-sustainable forest in a span of 4 years.

5. Afroz Shah

via: YouTube

Afroz is a lawyer by profession who took the initiative to clean and transform Mumbai’s Versova Beach. This mission took him 85 weeks to complete after which he had collected 4,000 tons of trash or waste from the 2.5 km beach.

6. Narayana Peesapaty

via: YouTube

He is a man behind making an incredible invention of edible cutlery from combat plastic. Isn’t that unique? The cutlery is being made by using the combination of Jowar, rice and wheat flour in a manner that it contains a mix of 3 flavours i.e. sweet, spicy and plain.

7. Anurag & Satyendra Meena

via: The Better India

They are the two final years IIT Bombay graduated who have created a free water dispensing machine without spending even single money. The machine invented by them is popularly known as the “Swachh Machine” which is already being marketed and promoted by a Chandigarh-based start-up named Trestor.