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[Phantom Lord]

I think they are trying to retrace the slave routes and searching for the food that slaves thrown overboard provided.

[Shermy]

We've lost complete penguin control!

[Doctor Stochastic]

They're getting in shape for a mass escape attempt.

[boomop1]

Maybe they are the sounding alarm for the coming earthquake

[boomop1]

Or they are part of anti war protest.

[Grampa Dave]

So is this a secret up to now, Penguin circle jerk done in the water?

[Hanging Chad]

"... the six penguins from Ohio ..."
I think there used to be a rock and roll band by this name.

[EggsAckley]

"We've lost complete control," said Jane Tollini, the zoos penguin keeper. "It's a free-for-all in here. After 18 years of doing this job, these birds are making mincemeat of me."

[Timesink]

Before you laugh, I'm quite serious about the following hypothesis: One or more of the Ohio penguins has severe OCD. Many animal actions that we consider "instinct" are actually mild forms of OCD; their brains simply tell them to "do X" over and over. Normally, this is not a problem, as their brains only tell them to "do X" as often as is necessary. But just as some humans with OCD end up doing things like washing their hands constantly because their wiring telling them to "keep clean" is a bit off compared to the "keep clean" wiring in the rest of us, sometimes the "do X" wiring in a given animal can be set on overload.

I'll bet anything that if they simply start giving the Ohio penguins daily doses of Paxil (titated to proper penguin-dosage levels, of course), the behavior will stop within a couple of weeks. I also bet there's only one Alpha Penguin that's actually got the problem, and once they figure out who he/she is, they can stop the Paxil on all the other penguins.

There have been plenty of studies on how anti-OCD drugs stop strange/annoying repetitive actions in animals and pets (dogs that simply won't EVER stop chasing their tails, cats that groom themselves to the point they lick bald patches on their skin, etc).

[tubebender]

Sounds like 6 disrupters left FR for the real zoo.

[william clark]

Maybe they were imported from the Istanbul zoo.

[From The Deer Stand]

It's simple. The six from Ohio were all Democrats. Now they've got the whole bunch going around in circles!

[ArrogantBustard]

`What I was going to say,' said the Dodo in an offended tone, `was, that the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race.'

`What is a Caucus-race?' said Alice; not that she wanted much to know, but the Dodo had paused as if it thought that somebody ought to speak, and no one else seemed inclined to say anything.

`Why,' said the Dodo, `the best way to explain it is to do it.' (And, as you might like to try the thing yourself, some winter day, I will tell you how the Dodo managed it.)

First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, (`the exact shape doesn't matter,' it said,) and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there. There was no `One, two, three, and away,' but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out `The race is over!' and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking, `But who has won?'

This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said, `Everybody has won, and all must have prizes.'

[APBaer]

Quack!! Quack!! All your zoo belong to me!!

[Hatteras]

Throw an Orca in there. They'll get out.

[gnarledmaw]

If you guys found a way in then there must be a way to swim out...

[ProudGOP]

Interesting, but this isn't the first occurrence of this type of behavior.

In 1992, a couple of Clintons were introduced to the Democrat party and the whole lot of them have been going in circles ever since.

[Prodigal Son]

Whatever the explanation, there's probably a good short story or a Disney flick in it somewhere.

Maybe they think they're migrating, escaping? Maybe they've invented a religion like the Ghost Dancers- if they swim and swim and swim, one day they'll wake up on an iceberg free from the zoo?

[NorseWood]

Maybe they are just training to try out for the synchronized swimming event in the next Summer Olympics.