Animal Of The Week: Nils Olav

Nils Olav is this week’s Animal of the Week. But who, or what, is Nils Olav, you might be asking? To answer that, I should use his full title: Colonel-in-Chief Sir Nils Olav of the Norwegian King’s Guard. In 1961 the King’s Guard visited Edinburgh and a member visited the zoo and became fascinated with the zoo’s penguins. Upon their next visit they were convinced to adopt a king penguin as a mascot. Starting off as a lowly lance-corporal Nils Olav receives a promotion every time the King’s Guard returns to Edinburgh and for their most recent visit he was knighted where King Harald of Norway said Nils was “in every way qualified to receive the honour and dignity of knighthood”. Nils’ duties mostly remain ceremonial although if called upon he is known to be a shrewd military strategist. Nils is currently the most decorated penguin in any modern army.