Lost penguin ends up in NZ
Source: Agencies |
June 22, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
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A YOUNG Emperor penguin took a rare wrong turn from the Antarctic and ended up stranded on a New Zealand beach - the first time in 44 years the aquatic bird has been sighted in the wild in the South Pacific country.
Local resident Christine Wilton was taking her miniature Schnauzer dog Millie for a walk on Peka Peka Beach on the North Island's western coast when she discovered the bird on Monday evening.
"It was out-of-this-world to see it ... like someone just dropped it from the sky," Wilton said.
"It looked like 'Happy Feet' - it was totally in the wrong place," Wilton said, referring to the 2006 animated musical featuring a young penguin who finds himself far from home.
Conservation experts said the penguin is about 10 months old and stands about 80 centimeters high. Colin Miskelly, a curator at Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand, said the bird was likely born during the last Antarctic winter. It may have been searching for squid and krill when it took a wrong turn.
Emperor penguins are the tallest and largest species of penguin and can grow up to 122 centimeters high and weigh more than 34 kilograms.
Their amazing journey to breeding grounds deep in the Antarctic was chronicled in the 2005 documentary "March of the Penguins," which highlighted their ability to survive the brutal winter.
Miskelly said the penguin would need to find its way back south soon if it were to survive. Despite the onset of winter, the bird was probably hot and thirsty, he said.
Local resident Christine Wilton was taking her miniature Schnauzer dog Millie for a walk on Peka Peka Beach on the North Island's western coast when she discovered the bird on Monday evening.
"It was out-of-this-world to see it ... like someone just dropped it from the sky," Wilton said.
"It looked like 'Happy Feet' - it was totally in the wrong place," Wilton said, referring to the 2006 animated musical featuring a young penguin who finds himself far from home.
Conservation experts said the penguin is about 10 months old and stands about 80 centimeters high. Colin Miskelly, a curator at Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand, said the bird was likely born during the last Antarctic winter. It may have been searching for squid and krill when it took a wrong turn.
Emperor penguins are the tallest and largest species of penguin and can grow up to 122 centimeters high and weigh more than 34 kilograms.
Their amazing journey to breeding grounds deep in the Antarctic was chronicled in the 2005 documentary "March of the Penguins," which highlighted their ability to survive the brutal winter.
Miskelly said the penguin would need to find its way back south soon if it were to survive. Despite the onset of winter, the bird was probably hot and thirsty, he said.
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