TOKYO: An elderly penguin who shot to fame in Japan after falling in love with a cardboard cut-out of a cartoon character has died, at the ripe old age of 21.
Officials at Tobu zoo in Saitama, north of Tokyo, said Grape passed away after a brief illness with the object of his desire right by his side. He would have been around 80 in human years.
Earlier this year, the Humboldt penguin became smitten with a cut-out of Hululu — a character from the Japanese anime “Kemono Friends” — after being dumped by his former mate, a female called Midori.
A love-sick Grape found solace in Hululu and would stare at her for hours on end.
The plight of the romantic penguin went viral, earning Grape millions of fans worldwide.
A steady stream of mourners has visited Tobu zoo’s penguin enclosure, many with flowers, since the tragic news broke on Friday, while officials erected a makeshift shrine to their fallen celebrity on Saturday.
“Little Grape had a wife called Midori but she left him and found herself a new husband,” Tobu zoo’s penguin caretaker Eri Nemoto told local media.
“We put the cardboard panel next to him to comfort him to the very end.”
Tributes flooded in on social media too under the trending hashtag “Grape-kun” (little grape), with several users posting elaborate hand-drawn pictures of Grape gazing longingly at Hululu.
“Goodnight sweet prince,” wrote one Twitter user, while another posted: “You charmed the world and made it a little brighter. See you, Space Cowboy.”
Japan zoo mourns death of love-struck penguin
Japan zoo mourns death of love-struck penguin
Researchers find 10,000-year-old rock art site in Sinai
- The natural rock shelter’s ceiling features numerous red-pigment drawings of animals and symbols, as well as inscriptions in Arabic and Nabataean
- Some engravings reflect the lifestyles and economic activities of early human communities
CAIRO: Archeologists have discovered a 10,000-year-old site with rock art in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the country’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said.
The previously unknown site on the Umm Irak Plateau features a 100-meter-long rock formation whose diverse carvings trace the evolution of human artistic expression from prehistoric times to the Islamic era.
The Supreme Council of Antiquities “has uncovered one of the most important new archeological sites, of exceptional historical and artistic value,“the ministry said in a statement.
Its chronological diversity makes it “an open-air natural museum,” according to the council’s secretary-general, Hisham El-Leithy.
The natural rock shelter’s ceiling features numerous red-pigment drawings of animals and symbols, as well as inscriptions in Arabic and Nabataean.
Some engravings “reflect the lifestyles and economic activities of early human communities,” the ministry said.
Inside, animal droppings, stone partitions, and hearth remains confirm that the shelter was used as a refuge for a long time.
These “provide further evidence of the succession of civilizations that have inhabited this important part of Egypt over the millennia,” Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathi said.
He described the discovery as a “significant addition to the map of Egyptian antiquities.”
The site is located in southern Sinai, where Cairo is undertaking a vast megaproject aimed at attracting mass tourism to the mountain town of Saint Catherine, a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to Bedouin who fear for their ancestral land.
