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''Miracles of Evolution'' is a

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film trailer featuring flying penguins made in 2008 as an

April Fools' Day April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may ...

hoax. The film was advertised as compelling evidence for

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

's theory of evolution. It was largely set on King George Island, from mainland

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' wrote that the film was "an instant classic. It is accomplished work of this kind that guarantees the BBC its unique status." The BBC website still claims that it may attempt to film the flying penguins again because the original film did not explain how such small birds, that are not used to flying, could survive long migrations over vast, stormy oceans. ''Miracles of Evolution'' was filmed with animated penguins for the occasion of April Fools' Day, and to promote the

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...

MSN MSN (meaning Microsoft Network) is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95. The Microsoft Net ...

included "The BBC's flying penguins" as one of their twelve "hoaxes of the decade."

The film

The film features

Adélie penguin The Adélie penguin (''Pygoscelis adeliae'') is a species of penguin common along the entire coast of the Antarctic continent, which is the only place where it is found. It is the most widespread penguin species, and, along with the emperor p ...

s that live in

. Adélie penguins are one of the most southern seabirds in the world. The film claims that long and extremely cold Antarctic winters forced some groups of Adélies to adapt by (re)gaining the ability to fly. In the film the penguins travel thousands of kilometres to the

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

s of South America. The narrative of the film discourages adventurers from trying to see flying penguins on their own. These birds are rare, "elusive and secretive". It is all but impossible to find them in the dense jungles of South America, or even to see their

migration Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

over the southern oceans. After migrating, the penguins are shown landing in the

canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an a ...

of the rainforest. The film was narrated by

Terry Jones Terence Graham Parry Jones (1 February 1942 – 21 January 2020) was a Welsh comedian, director, historian, actor, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy team. After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones and ...

(of ''

Monty Python Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four ...

'' fame). Walking in Antarctica between Adélies, Jones says: The film shows birds taking off one after another, with the sky turned from normal blue to sunset orange and the whole sky soon becoming filled with thousands of large flocks of birds and flying penguins. The film shows the penguins flying over icebergs and through a hole in an iceberg. Antarctica is then left behind and viewers see the green of South America's rainforests. In a remastered version, the penguins migrate all over Antarctica to all the southern hemisphere continents.

Film promotions

On 1 April 2008 rival newspapers ''The Daily Telegraph'' and ''

The Daily Mirror ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' both published articles about the upcoming film. ''The Mirror'' ran the story on its front page, and in ''The Daily Telegraph'' the story was one of the most important of the day. ''The Daily Telegraph'' proclaimed that the BBC had "remarkable footage of penguins flying as part of its new natural history series, ''Miracles of Evolution''." Chris Tryhorn, a news editor for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', admitted that the story "gave him pause for thought" when two of his rivals, ''The Daily Mirror'' and ''The Daily Telegraph'', published synchronized stories on such an important discovery. Tryhorn said that he started to put the pieces together based upon the

publication date To publish is to make content available to the general public.Berne Conve ...

, Monty Python's Terry Jones being the host and the film maker being called Prof Alid Loyas. Tryhorn realised after noticing that Prof Alid Loyas was an anagram of "April Fools Day". ''The Daily Mirror'' later published an explanation for its readers who were waiting for the documentary to be broadcast on BBC One. The trailer can still be found on the BBC website, however it is viewed using the BBC iPlayer, which is only available to Internet users accessing from British IP addresses. It can also be found on YouTube.

Production

The hoax was made using diverse techniques and footage. BBC producers used real footage of Adélies filmed in the Antarctic by the BBC. Animated penguins were then created, and to make them fly the animators used a flight pattern used by

guillemot Guillemot is the common name for several species of seabird in the Alcidae or auk family (part of the order Charadriiformes). In British use, the term comprises two genera: ''Uria'' and ''Cepphus''. In North America the ''Uria'' species are c ...

s that somewhat resemble penguins. Terry Jones was filmed in a studio with fake snow on the floor and on his polar parka. Later this footage was combined with real footage taken in Antarctica and with the footage of animated penguins in flight.

External links

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References

{{Use dmy dates, date=March 2020 April Fools' Day jokes Hoaxes in the United Kingdom 2008 hoaxes Hoaxes in science Films about penguins