Birdie.

In his story, Birdie spends his days at the End of the World Station, in Ushuaia, and what he likes most is passing around a piping hot thermos of mate cocido, the kind that wakes you right up, so no one's hands stay cold. He loves the bustle of a full platform. What he doesn't handle as well is the ending: once the last train leaves and everything empties out and settles into calm, something strange comes over his chest. A hot drink in your hands, at that moment, is exactly what's needed.

There's something tender at the heart of this small penguin. His people, the emperor penguins, breed on the southern fast ice, and that ice now arrives later and breaks up sooner; today it's an endangered species, and that's why many families like Birdie's moved down to live at the port. I say this without drama, just as the place he comes from. I created him facing forward with a clean background, which is what works best on a mug. He's part of my Animal Kinhood series, which I sign as Yago Partal; there's more of him in his biography.