Later today at Edinburgh Zoo, members of the Norwegian King's Guard, currently in town for the Tattoo, will make a big fuss and march up and down a bit for a king penguin named Nils Olav, the honorary colonel in chief - or mascot if you prefer - of their regiment. The penguin is to be further promoted, though what rank it will hold is not known. Nils Olav is pictured inspecting the guard a few years ago on the occasion of it attaining its present rank.
It is the second Edinburgh king penguin to be thus favoured, the first Nils Olav having inconveniently died some little while after being adopted by a guardsman in the 1970s. What an absolutely marvellous piece of silliness. The full story is here on the official Norway site for the UK (who knew?) and here on the BBC.
