[a href="vny!://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080815.wpenguins0815/BNStory/Front/home"]vny!://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080815.wpenguins0815/BNStory/Front/home[/a]
Nils Olav already has medals for good conduct and long service. He made honorary colonel-in-chief of the elite Norwegian King's Guard in 2005. And on Friday he was knighted. Not bad for a one-metre-tall penguin – actually, three of them.[/p] A resident of Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland, the original Nils Olav was made an honorary member of the King's Guard in 1972 after being picked out as the guard's mascot by Lieutenant Nils Egelien. The guards adopted him because they often toured the zoo during their visits to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, an annual military music festival, zoo spokeswoman Maxine Finlay said.[/p] The king penguin was named after Lt. Egelien and Norway's then-King Olav V. When that penguin died – Ms. Finlay said no one at the zoo knew exactly when – he was replaced by a second penguin, which inherited his name and rank.[/p]
