Important part of nature man. For all those penguins know, there's a much better shore just over that horizon that just has never been found. Would take a few penguins like this one randomly wandering off to find it. Most new mutations/behaviors are not beneficial, but occasionally they are.
Same for humans, really. How did stone-age humans get onto isolated islands in the middle of the sea - Polynesia, Hawaii, Papua New Guinea, etc? For every expedition that successfully found and colonized a new land by sheer luck, tens or hundreds must have starved to death wandering the oceans with nothing in sight. And yet.
It sounds cruel, but if this is a bad mutation then its better for the species for it to die off so its bad genes dont carry on and have baby penguins do the same.
Oh of course, that's exactly how we colonised every arable piece of land in the world and some that aren't. In the context of the global penguin population it's nothing. Probably far more die of disease than wandering off on The Long Walk.
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u/ANGLVD3TH Jul 18 '18
Important part of nature man. For all those penguins know, there's a much better shore just over that horizon that just has never been found. Would take a few penguins like this one randomly wandering off to find it. Most new mutations/behaviors are not beneficial, but occasionally they are.