New Delhi: 109-year-old Alfred “Alfie” Date says he spends his free time knitting jumpers for penguins to protect them from oil spills.
Oil spills at sea can kill large numbers of seabirds and have the potential to wipe out entire populations where these are small or localised. So Alfred Date (popularly known as Alfie) spends a major part of his time making tiny outfits for penguins.
Alfie, 109, polished his knitting skills from his sister-in-law in around 1930s. When the Penguin Foundation, an NGO which tries to protect animals at Phillip Island, about 80 miles south-east of Melbourne, asked him to knit small jumpers, he immediately agreed.
Alfred stays at a nursing home. When the staff at his nursing home learnt of his skill, they suggested he put his skills to use.
"The two girls [nurses] come in to me and say 'We believe you can knit'. I said I like to make them without mistakes and I don't excuse myself for doing it, Alfie said to a news channel.
[But] I think there is an excuse for a person who's gone beyond the normal span of life.", he added.
The Penguin Foundation said the knitwear helps to protect the penguins from oil spills by protecting them from toxic chemicals and preventing the grease from affecting their ability to hunt or maintain body temperature.
In 2001, the jumpers helped protect about 96 per cent of 438 penguins that came into contact with an oil spill.
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