'Penguin cam' popular on Twitter

A live webcam showing penguins enjoying the recent snowfall at Edinburgh Zoo has become a surprise online hit using the social networking site Twitter.

A live webcam of penguins at Edinburgh Zoo is proving a hit with Twitterers.

The feed went viral when the zoo's closure forced keepers to think of a novel way to interact with animal lovers.

So, when marketing assistant Claire Richardson decided to sent out a tweet to let people know that, even though the zoo was shut to the public, they could still tune in to see the penguins in action.

Very soon, the link to the penguin cam was getting up to ten retweets every minute.

Ms Richardson said the enormous traffic brought the camera down.

"The penguin cam is always popular but it's gone absolutely crazy today, to the point where I can't keep up with how many times it has been linked to," she said.

"It's lovely to hear that people are watching them with their children when they can't come along to the zoo itself.

She said that comments are being made from people who have made it to work saying the penguin cam is so cute and distracting that their productivity is going down.

"There has been a lot of coverage of the doom and gloom snow brings, but this is the other side of that. Some people - and animals - absolutely love snow. So it's nice to cheer people up," she said.