Story of the Week How a penguin was adopted

August 24, 2026

What happened when a penguin was adopted

The true story of a penguin who was adopted by the man who saved him.

As a boy, Tom Michell, would listen enraptured as his relatives would tell tales of the places they had lived and visited overseas.

When he was 12, he decided to learn Spanish as South America was somewhere unexplored by his relatives. In his early 20’s that became a reality when he answered an ad for a teacher in Argentina with the submission “I’m on my way, no need to interview anybody.”

When he arrived and with inflation running at 1000%, he was told there could be no salary guarantee but as part of the package, they would cover the cost of a return flight.

Following the military coup in 1978, Tom considered returning home but instead decided to travel to Uruguay during the school holidays. One day he went down to the beach and was greeted with a distressing sight. Thousands of dead penguins covered in tar and oil littered the beach.

As he walked along the shoreline, he noticed a penguin with his eyes open and vainly trying to flap his wings. When he went to inspect the penguin more closely, he was greeted with a nip on his finger, so finding an old fisherman’s net, he bundled up the penguin to take him for a clean-up back at his lodgings.

After a few days and having cleaned him up, he returned to the beach and set him free by the shore, expecting him to swim away. But he just stood there refusing to budge. Tom noticed a rocky outcrop so thought the answer would be to place him on the rocks at low tide and when the tide came in, he’d be forced to swim.

Retreating back to the beach, Tom waited for the tide, but no sooner had it reached the outcrop than the penguin hopped off and waddled back to him. The following day Tom returned to the outcrop and this time he would stay with him until the tide came in before wading back to the shore.

Having stumbled in the sea, he was brushing down his wet clothes when he saw a pair of little feet coming into view. Not knowing what else to do, Tom investigated further and discovered that penguins use oil secreted from a gland to form a windproof and water-repellent coat. He realised that by cleaning him, he was no longer waterproof and wouldn’t be able to swim until he had re-coated herself.

The only option for Tom was to take him with him back to Argentina. Disguising him in a polythene bag, as he was going through customs, the penguin gave the game away with a squawk. Bundled into a room, a customs official informed Tom that livestock couldn’t be exported but then relented when Tom told him the story and pointed out that he was a wild bird so perhaps didn’t conform to the ban.

Fortunately for the penguin, Tom’s college room led out to a private terrace which became his living quarters except when he was in the bath. Tom realised that he would have to take someone into his confidence and chose the 70-year-old college cleaner, Maria, who had become his surrogate grandmother. When told of the penguin, her immediate reaction was “There’s no way, you can keep a penguin”. That attitude changed when she met the penguin and instantly fell in love.

Before long, Tom’s students were visiting the penguin and often on their own as they confided their issues with the penguin. Diego was one such student and a loner who didn’t fit in but found solace talking to the penguin.

With his freshly acquired waterproof coat, Tom knew that the penguin would need to swim. The college swimming pool was drained and refilled every three weeks, so the day before emptying, Tom and Diego took the penguin for a swim.

Watching the penguin swimming up and down, Diego asked if he could join him and when Tom agreed, raced off to get changed. Diving into the pool, Diego was soon swimming with the penguin, and Tom was struck by how effortlessly, Diego was swimming. Afterwards, Tom told Diego he should join and compete with the college swimming team.

Diego, the loner, had found his identity and the penguin another meaningful interaction with a human.

When Tom went away for a long weekend, he entrusted Juan Santiago – as the penguin by now was named, into the care of a friend. When he returned, he knew immediately something was wrong. Juan Santiago had died. He hadn’t eaten for a day and died soon after. Tom never knew how old Juan Santiago was, but the webbed feet of a penguin can be an indication. Juan Santiago was certainly middle aged if not older.

It wasn’t the end of his influence, as Tom was persuaded to write a book about the story – The Penguin Lessons – which was eventually published, appropriately, by Penguin and inspired a 2024 film titled “The Penguin Lessons” starring Steve Coogan.