India, Jan. 24 -- A short clip showing a lone penguin waddling away from its colony into the Antarctic mountains has taken the internet by storm in 2026. Social media users have named it the "Nihilist Penguin", turning the footage into a symbol of quiet rebellion, burnout, and emotional exhaustion. But beyond the memes, a pressing question arises: did the penguin survive?

The footage comes from Werner Herzog's 2007 documentary Encounters at the End of the World. The Adelie penguin in the video walks alone roughly 70 kilometres inland, moving away from the ocean and its colony, with no visible food sources. Scientists say this type of behaviour is unusual but not unheard of. Possible explanations include:

Werner Herzog described the beha...