Penguin Bites Newt Gingrich At St. Louis Zoo
By Samantha Abernethy in News on Apr 17, 2012 9:20PM
The Saint Louis Zoo added this photo to its Facebook page today, but it had no caption. It appears to be either a Magellanic penguin or a Humboldt penguin, and there is no indication this is the cutie that bit Newt.
Gingrich makes frequent visits to zoos on the campaign trail. Buzzfeed has put together a list of 25 photos of Gingrich with animals, which he liked so much he tweeted it himself. "Newt is a zoo fan," Gingrich campaign spokesman R.C. Hammond said. "He will be back."
The St. Louis Dispatch confirmed the bite with the zoo:
"During that visit, as Speaker Gingrich indicated in an interview with a national media outlet, he was nipped on the finger by a penguin," zoo public relations director Susan Gallagher said in a statement. "A band-aid took care of the injury."
This isn't Gingrich's first run-in with a zoo animal. In 1995 he was "nuzzling" a baby cougar that Jack Hanna brought to meet him, when the cougar bit his chin causing a minor abrasion and a little blood.
So who would the penguin vote for? Sure the little fellow might be a Obama supporter, but it's more likely he's a tuxedoed Romney fan. According to the Washington Post, Missouri is becoming less of a swing state and appears set to vote Republican in November. Gingrich didn't even make it on the ballot in Missouri's February primary, which Rick Santorum handily won, so this isn't his first wound from Missouri.
A Magellanic penguin's typical diet consists of fish, mainly anchovies and sardines. They typically inhabit the southern end of South America, largely around Chile. We were unable to find any newt species that inhabit that region, so this doesn't seem to be a case of mistaken identity. Perhaps the penguin disagrees with Newt's proposal to create a social security plan based on the "Chilean model".