Standing tall with his beak facing up towards the waiting crowd, Sir Nils Olav shuffled his way towards the waiting guards.

This famous king penguin approached the line-up of His Majesty the King of Norway's Guard with an impressive list of military titles to his name.

Already a knight, the Edinburgh Zoo favourite has now added another to his list as he was awarded the new title of Brigadier Sir Nils Olav at Edinburgh Zoo on August 22 with over 50 uniformed soldiers who are taking part in The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo this year lining the penguin parade at the zoo in his honour.

Standing alongside penguin keepers from the zoo, Sir Nils took his new role to heart as he slowly inspected the soldiers of the guard standing to attention.

Senior penguin keeper Dawn Nicoll says Sir Nils revels in the attention of such accolades.

"He has a very unique personality for a penguin," Dawn says. "He has a completely different personality to the rest of the penguins.

"He walks with quite a regal posture, holds himself quite upright and loves the attention of these things.

"Nils quite likes to chill out on his own whereas the other boys like to be together. But they will often come over and go to Nils.

"One of our new males Dennis, who is two years old, has taken a really strong liking to him. He will follow him around."

Dawn adds: "He is very different from your average king penguin. I think that's what wins us all over."

The connection between Edinburgh Zoo and Norway dates back as far as 1914 when the Norwegian family of Christian Salvesen presented the Zoo with its first king penguins. The zoo then had the first successful hatching of a king penguin chick outside of the South Atlantic in 1919.

The connection was rekindled in 1972 when a king penguin was named after two people - Major Nils Egelien, who organised his adoption, and the then-King of Norway, King Olav.

Nils was given the role of mascot for the Norwegian Guard and has since moved up the ranks with p-p-perfect precision becoming a Corporal, a Sergeant, a Regimental Sergeant Major, an Honourable Regimental Sergeant Major and a Colonel-in-Chief.

In 2008, he was given a Knighthood, a position so high it had to be approved the King of Norway, King Harald V.

The guardsmen visit Sir Nils every few years while they are in the city performing at The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Major Nils Egelien was even in attendance on the day as he marked his tenth visit to see this special penguin.

After walking the parade path with ease, the penguin met Brigadier David Allfrey, producer and chief executive of The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, who presented this regal penguin with his latest medal alongside Commanding Officer Geir Petterson from the Norwegian Guard.

As Sir Nils momentarily looked curiously at the statue erected in his honour before returning to attention to be presented with the accolade, David says he was delighted to see him step up to the mark of his new role.

He says: "As you would expect, he had a rehearsal like all good soldiers. He was fantastic.

"He even paused half way down the line of the soldiers to have a good scratch and then gave us a good cry at the end."

Geir Petterson adds: "You can see he is now a Brigadier because he was inspecting his troops.

"He was checking them and giving them feedback. I think he is doing a perfect job. And now all the penguins at the island will have a firm leader in him."