The penguin that’s named after a BuzzFeed business journalist

When BuzzFeed business reporter Sapna Maheshwari wrote this story last month about the tuxedo rental business, she didn’t realize that it would result in a South American penguin being named after her.

During her reporting, Maheshwari called a startup dubbed Menguin that rents tuxedos. She included them in the story, referring to its projected sales for the year.

After the article was posted, the company informed Maheshwari that with every tux rented, it takes a portion of the proceeds and adopts penguins in South America. It told her they would love to name one Sapna.

“I said that was fine, sort of baffled, not sure what to expect,” said Maheshwari in an email.

Later in July, Maheshwari received an email from Justin Delaney of Menguin. The company had adopted a five-year-old penguin couple and named them Sapna and Buzz. (In the photo, Sapna is on the left.)

The email noted:

Sapna and Buzz, live on Magdalena Island, a protected nature reserve that is home to around 130,000 Magellanic penguins, all living within an area of less than 1 square kilometer. Magdalena Island is near the city of Punta Arenas in southern Chile, in the middle of the Straits of Magellan, hence the name Magellanic penguins. These amazing little guys are only found in Chile, Argentina and the Falkland Islands.

Sapna and Buzz are about five years old and began nesting for the first time last November. Two eggs were laid, and both chicks were reared successfully during January and February. I attached photos of your penguins and their home, along with a map showing the location of the colony, in case you want to go drop by!

The Magellanic penguins prefer to live in burrows. This is unusual for penguins in general. Most penguins tend to live in colonies above ground. Penguins living in Antarctica and on sub-Antarctic islands can live freely above ground because there are no mammalian predators such as foxes, rats and armadillos to steal their eggs.

A month later, Maheshwari remains somewhat baffled. In an email to Talking Biz News, she wrote, “They didn’t pitch me, I didn’t sanction it and they sent it to me out of the blue…. and I have no way to keep track of the penguins!”