One of Scotland's most popular zoos is looking to hire staff - and while posting about the positions on offer took the opportunity to expose the truth about a now-famous viral tweet.

In 2018, a Twitter user posted a hilarious tweet about the fact that a man she'd met in the pub had claimed his job role was a 'Penguin Erector' at Edinburgh Zoo.

The user, called @WeeHumpz, wrote: "Boy in the pub was telling me his job is a penguin erector so every time a plane flys over Edinburgh zoo the penguins can’t take their eyes off it and end up falling over n he just goes round picking them back up, 38 penguins 2000 flights a day."

The Tweet quickly went viral with over 600K likes with people tagging in Edinburgh Zoo to see if it was actually a real thing.

One user responded: "The Edinburgh zoo is going to be so confused when 100,000 people apply to be penguin erectors there."

Another added: "Just the 76000 penguin pickups a day then."

It got so crazy that the zoo team was eventually forced to respond, with the senior penguin keeper at the time posting: “There is no such job. The penguins can’t even see the planes from the zoo."

"It's a very popular rumour," they added in another post. "But penguins do not track planes as they fly overhead. Any clumsy penguin behaviour tends to be unrelated to aircraft."

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Hilariously, in a new job post, Edinburgh Zoo has now confirmed again that there is no such job as a "Penguin Erector", writing: "While we usually do our best not to crush the internet's hopes and dreams, we do need to debunk this particularly persistent rumour... Sadly, the boy in the pub proved unreliable and there is no such thing as a penguin erector.

"Fortunately, penguins have evolved to p-p-p-pick themselves up."

They then added that although the hilarious job role might be made up, they stated that they are recruiting for some real roles here at the zoo and there's still time to apply.

The post has left the zoo's fans in stitches with one follower posting: "Could I get a job to pick penguins up emotionally?

"Give them compliments if they’re having a bad day, get them something nice on their birthday, etc?"

To which the zoo team replied: "What a pure and honourable vocation you’ve proposed! Thankfully our penguin keepers and the rest of the colony keep everyone in good spirits. We wouldn’t say no to an emotional pick me up for the social media team some days though."

One person called the job ad - the "greatest ever".

While another added: "Almost a shame it's not true because I'd love that job."

But the Zoo had a word of caution for anyone hoping to try the role out in real life, writing: "We're pretty sure everyone's underestimating the pain of a penguin peck... they really don't like being picked up!"

You can find out about the jobs here - potential 'Penguin erectors' need not apply.

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