The rarest profession in the world is the Penguin Lifter (penguin flipper). Myth or reality? Video

Ratings of unusual professions are compiled every year all over the world. There are many who fall into them: a jam spreader on buns, a lifeguard on a nudist beach (a very special, delicate profession), and a student’s personal stenographer.

In general, if you decide to radically change your occupation, you will have plenty to choose from. You just need to know the pitfalls of your chosen profession.

Waiter in line

This is not a service from the time of the fall of the USSR, but an ordinary British profession. True, it appeared relatively recently, but it is already justifying its existence. According to statistics, the average Briton spends at least a year in queues in his life. Therefore, a specially trained, patient person for these purposes comes in handy for them. Valet services are not cheap - $40 per hour, but, you see, this is nothing compared to a lost year of life.

Companion

And this is already a Japanese profession. The disease of the metropolis - loneliness - has not escaped the residents of Tokyo. The city is literally swarming with people, and there is no one to talk to. For this purpose, professional interlocutors sit in special booths in the busiest places. For a reasonable fee, they are ready to listen to everyone and, if necessary, give good advice. In a week, such specialists help an average of 10,000 people speak out. Who knows, maybe thanks to them, Tokyo has one of the lowest crime rates in the world.

Oserifier

In Russian it sounds like an insult, but in fact it is an international profession. In addition, it is extremely necessary: ​​sulfurizers apply sulfur to the heads of matches. True, with the advent of lighters, the demand for people in this profession throughout the world has fallen. However, many people still prefer matches to lighters in the old fashioned way, so for now, professional oscillators are not in danger of extinction.

Penguin flipper

No, this is not a Greenpeace volunteer, but an employee of airfields near Antarctica. In their natural environment, penguins never fall on their backs, only on their stomachs. From this position they learned to get up. But when penguins walk near airfields, everything happens differently. Curious birds lift their heads to look at the planes taking off, causing them to lose their balance and fall onto their backs. They are no longer able to get up from this position. For such cases, there are rollers that help them get out of their helpless position.

Toilet guide

An official profession registered in China. On the streets of Beijing and other large cities you can now meet comrades who, for a fee of 4 cents, are ready to show anyone where the nearest public toilet is. In their work books there is a proud entry: “Civil servant - toilet guide”!

From Russia with love

There are also many unusual specialties in our country. Some appeared due to bureaucratic tongue-tiedness. In the official register of professions you can find a tailings manager, a logger, a fire raker, a forest pathologist, and an assembler of small animal skeletons.

Russians invent other professions for themselves. Among them are a wet cleaning manager (cleaning lady), a mouse breeder, a battle hunter (hunter of empty beer bottles), and an organizer of friendly pranks. Psychologists say that people who choose an unusual profession are often difficult to get along with and cause a lot of trouble for their relatives. Perhaps because they feel they are especially needed by society. Awareness of your own uniqueness inspires and obliges you to do a lot...

Our film crew traveled to the southernmost continent of the Earth to meet its black and white local residents and see how they live.

Some say that penguins flip over on their backs when they hear the sound of airplanes flying past.

Antarctic penguins are truly amazing creatures. However, are they at risk from human activity? In 1982, while flying over penguin colonies, British pilots observed a strange phenomenon. They stated that when the penguins raised their heads and looked at the passing planes, they fell over on their backs. Then thousands of penguins remained lying there, unable to rise. However, is this story true?

STEWART, British Antarctic Survey: Everyone knows this story, but anyone who actually knows or has been to Antarctica will tell you that it is not true. It's more like the mythology of Falklands War pilots.

As for the second part of the tale, it was stated that it was necessary to allocate a special person in order to turn the birds over, otherwise they would die. One German ornithologist claims that this is indeed her work...

ANKE, ornithologist: Yes, I actually do this, lifting birds and turning them over every day. It's hard work because sometimes they resist, but it's worth it.

A closer look at Anke's responsibilities raised some doubts. Doubts were also reinforced by the head of the Russian Bellingshausen station, a base located in a unique location - between the runway and a colony of penguins.

N Yep, this is the first time I've heard of it. We don't have people who do this kind of work!

Against the backdrop of a large number of dubious and contradictory rumors around this position, we decided to turn directly to the heroes of history - to listen to what they have to say on this issue.

Unfortunately, the penguins refused to comment. However, careful observations have shown that sometimes penguins perform special dances. When in a hurry, they can be clumsy and often slip. But we have found evidence that they are very smart and intelligent creatures.

VIKTOR VINOGRADOV, station chief: In fact, penguins are very smart birds. Sometimes they come in a group to the edge of the ice floe, looking out for seals, and if one gets too close to the edge, the other pushes him and watches what happens next.

The myth-debunking site Snopes dot com claims that British scientists conducted a study to find out whether this is true or not. They found that the roar of the plane caused the penguins to scatter, but none of them tipped over on their backs. However, since we did not have our own certificates, we decided to still conduct the final test, with the support of the Chilean Air Force. Our task is to destroy this myth once and for all.

As you can see, the penguins are fine, and no one should go south to do work that doesn't exist.

InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively from foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.

Probably, many have read about this mysterious worker of the Arctic Circle - the flipper (or lifter) of penguins. Typically, notes about this profession have the following content:

Penguins living near polar stations react vividly to flying helicopters. Animals lift their heads and lean back, and since their necks are short and their bodies are clumsy, they often fall onto their backs. Penguins cannot roll over and stand up on their own, so after each arrival or departure a specialist comes to their aid. Otherwise the animals will die.
This profession was even included in the rating of the strangest professions compiled by the Rabota.Mail.ru service. And the bird portal kryliev.net posted an illustrated version of this interesting vacancy:

Antarctica is inhabited by penguins - very good fat dead-end birds. In addition to penguins, there are polar stations in Antarctica.

Sometimes planes fly to polar stations.

Ok, ok, helicopters are coming too.

And the penguins, who usually have nothing to look at in the sky, lift their heads and tragically fall on their backs. Not all, of course, but only the most stupid individuals. The fattest of the dead-ends cannot get up on their own after this.

Only he, the Penguin Flipper, will save them.

Every time, in the dazzling Antarctic summer and the harsh dark winter, he comes to the rescue.

And in his free time, the Flipper knits sweaters for the little Tasmanian penguins.

But still, such a profession does not exist, sad as it may be:

In 2000, scientists from Great Britain put an end to the question that had troubled the country for the past 18 years. All this time it was claimed that penguins, watching a helicopter fly over them, lift their heads so much that they eventually fall on their backs. This phenomenon was allegedly observed by British Navy pilots who participated in the war with Argentina over the disputed Falkland Islands in 1982.

In order to establish the truth in this matter, British scientists organized an expedition to the Southern Hemisphere. The British Navy provided them with about 20 thousand pounds sterling, a patrol boat and two helicopters as support. On South Georgia Island, biologists monitored penguins for five weeks, but not a single penguin fall caused by a helicopter flying over it could be detected.

The penguins reacted calmly to planes and helicopters and never abandoned their clutches. It should be noted that previously the British Ministry of Defense categorically denied rumors of such a capsizing of penguins, calling this information a favorite April Fool's joke among pilots.
P.S. I'm sorry if I broke someone's dreams and faith in beauty
P.P.S. By the way, I never found the original source of information about the expedition of British scientists. Maybe there is such a wonderful and kind profession in this world as Penguin Flipper...

There is a long-standing legend among the people that Antarctic penguins, not accustomed to the noise in the sky, are so captivated by taking off airplanes that when they follow them with their eyes, they fall over on their backs and cannot get up on their own. Floundering on your back birds They find themselves completely helpless and even risk dying in heavy snowfalls. This fact, Certainly, is a threat to biodiversity, which is why among polar explorers there is a specially trained person - a penguin lifter or flipper - who, after each passing plane, plies the ice in search of trapped birds in order to return them to their usual vertical state.

As Mikhail Zadornov states in his program, “penguin raiser” is an exclusively Russian profession and exists only in that part of Antarctica that belongs to Russia. However, reports and journalistic investigations on this topic can also be found in foreign media. It all started with British pilots who, flying over the Falkland Islands full of penguin colonies in 1982, allegedly observed the phenomenon of hundreds of penguins falling on their backs. It must have been a sight - almost an Antarctic domino.

I must say, pilots are generally different sense of humor. For refueling Have a good mood Just type “pilot jokes” in any search engine. And with the penguins this happened, according to some reports, on the first of April. The hapless British Ministry of Defense, stormed by journalists and advocates nature, several times refuted the legend of the fall of the penguins. As a result, the British could not stand it, scraped out 20 thousand pounds sterling, a boat and two helicopters, and sent a group scientists to the island of South Georgia to study the relationship between penguins and airplanes. British biologists kept vigil for five weeks, observing penguin colonies, but not a single case of a penguin falling due to flying aircraft could be recorded. The sound of aircraft engines sometimes caused the penguins to scatter, but they clearly had no intention of falling.

Regarding the “penguin flipper” as an exclusively Russian profession, Viktor Vinogradov, boss Russian Antarctic station Bellingshausen (which, by the way, is located exactly between the penguin colony and the airfield), throws up his hands with a laugh and says that no one does such things.

However, Victor does not doubt the intellectual abilities of birds. “Penguins are actually very smart birds,” he says. - “Sometimes they come in a group to the edge of the ice floe, looking out seals, and if one gets too close to the edge, the other pushes him and sees what happens next.”

Jan Esefeld, member German A group for the study of Antarctic birds, which has been working at Bellingshausen station for several years, is surprised by the activity of journalists in relation to the penguin issue. He and his colleague Anke, in turn, make fun of such “researchers.” “Yes, yes, of course, it’s mine Job- look for penguins that get caught and check every day to see if they have turned up again,” Anke laughs.

In 2011, the television company RT, with the help of the Chilean Air Force, conducted its own small experiment as part of a journalistic investigation. They filmed the plane flying over a small colony of penguins, who, not paying any attention to the aircraft, calmly continued to go about their business.

So, we can safely say that the parable of the “lifter” is nothing more than an April Fool’s joke among pilots, and penguins are in Antarctica out of danger, and no one should storm the South Pole in pursuit of a profession that simply does not exist.

Penguins Video:

Video Mikhail Zadornov – Penguin lifter (turner):

One of the most unusual professions is that of a polar bear scarer. Not long ago, an expedition going to the North Pole was looking for such a person to join its staff. The worker's duties included ensuring that polar bears did not throw themselves under the icebreaker. For these purposes, the employer was obliged to provide the employee with ultra-modern special equipment, which, however, was not specified.

Requirements for the candidate include good health (no chronic heart or gastrointestinal diseases), willingness to spend 21 days on the ship, and high stress tolerance.

The work schedule is strict: work 4 hours, rest for four hours. But the payment is corresponding to $6000 for the expedition.

A vacancy posted by the company on one of the employment resources immediately received dozens of responses. Even despite the difficult working conditions, there were many who wanted to go and scare away polar bears in the Arctic ice.

Penguin Lifter

While the North Pole is looking for a bear repeller, the South Pole is in dire need of... a penguin lifter. The profession is rare, supposedly only mastered by a couple of people on the planet, but extremely necessary.

The thing is that after the plane takes off or lands, the penguins are thrown onto their backs by a sound wave. The bird can no longer rise on its own; for this it needs help.

The company, which posted a vacancy on one of the employment resources, in addition to a high salary of 80,000-100,000 rubles per month, promised its employees time for meditation, clean air, no traffic jams, as well as a kind and sympathetic team. Whether or not a specialist in raising penguins was found remains a mystery. Many took this vacancy for a joke.

Oil workers, doctors and cooks

In addition to exotic professions, such as bear scarer and penguin lifter, both at the North and South Pole there are jobs for those with the most ordinary professions.

And while at the North Pole oil-producing companies are in dire need of personnel, at the South Pole it is mainly scientific polar expeditions. There are both Russian and foreign companies.

For example, in Antarctica, on a huge (14 million sq. km) continent, about 40 polar stations operate today. Among them there are Russian bases, Australian, German, English, Swedish, Norwegian, and French. It should be taken into account that in order to get a job at foreign stations, you need a work permit from the country to which the station belongs.

"Australian Antarctic Division"

The Antarctic station of the Australian Antarctic Division presents the largest number of vacancies for foreign workers every year. For the 2015-2016 season, all of them (with the exception of the doctor’s vacancy, which is open all year round) are already closed, but you can try your luck and leave your resume for next year. The company promises that you will be contacted as soon as a new recruitment is opened.

You can view the full list of vacancies, as well as working conditions, on the Australian Antarctic Division website. Here you can also find email addresses to contact the station’s HR department and send your resume.

British polar stations

The United Kingdom has 6 polar stations in Antarctica. Only one of them - "Rother" - is permanently inhabited by about 100 people in the summer and about 20 in the winter.

Among the vacancies that are open at British stations for this season are mechanics, electricians, R&D development managers, chefs, carpenters and others. The salary at the British polar station is from 23 thousand pounds sterling per year. The stations have free Internet access, are equipped with computers, darts, billiards and a movie library.

You can submit an online application to participate in the work, as well as find additional information on the work of the stations on the website: www.antarctica.ac.uk/employment.

Russian Antarctic Expedition

You can get a job at a domestic station. There will be no need for any additional work permits, and there are no fewer open vacancies than with foreign colleagues.

“The Russian Antarctic Expedition (RAE) carries out work in the southern polar region - Antarctica, which includes the continent of Antarctica and the adjacent Southern Ocean. These hard-to-reach areas, in certain seasons of the year practically cut off from the main base of the expedition, are characterized by the most severe natural conditions on Earth and are associated with increased danger for RAE participants, lack of comfort in life and long-term separation from family. Therefore, when carrying out work in Antarctica, strict adherence to labor and production discipline, clear organization of work, readiness to overcome adversity and hardships, and an increased sense of responsibility for performing the assigned work are required,” says the official website of the RAE.

Selection for the Russian Antarctic Expedition is carried out from October to March. Meteorologists, geophysicists, hydrologists, programmers, radio engineers, surgeons and anesthesiologists, cooks, and other specialists are constantly needed. Those wishing to take part in the RAE can leave their online application on the official website or independently go to the personnel department of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, which is located in St. Petersburg on Bering Street, 38.

In fact, those who imagine working at polar stations as living in an icy hell are victims of stereotypes. Today there is everything here: cozy cottages, constant high-speed Internet, gyms, bars and even cinema halls. In a word, everything for a modern but secluded life. That is why, most often, when applying for a job, preference is given to married couples who can devote more than one year of their life to exploring the polar beauties without feeling homesick on the mainland.