Lost Emperor Penguin Taken Out to Sea, Released

UPDATE Nov 22, 2024 1:00 AM CST

The first emperor penguin known to have swum all the way from Antarctica to Australia was released at sea Wednesday, the AP reports. A Parks and Wildlife Service boat took the penguin on a journey several hours from the most southerly city of Western Australia state before releasing him into the Southern Ocean. He'd spent the previous 20 days in rehabilitation, gaining his strength back after having washed up on a popular Australian tourist beach severely malnourished. Summer is coming in the Southern Hemisphere, however, and government officials said time was of the essence in returning the penguin, named Gus by his rehabilitator, to the ocean to thermoregulate.

Nov 12, 2024 9:19 AM CST

A seabird rehabilitator in Australia is on a learning curve, caring for her first ever emperor penguin—the first of his species known to have made the 2,200-mile swim from Antarctica. The male emperor penguin, nicknamed Gus after the Roman emperor Augustus, turned up on Ocean Beach near Australia's southwestern tip on Nov. 1. "We thought it was another sea bird, but then it kept coming closer to the shore, and it was way too big," surfer Aaron Fowler tells the Albany Advertiser. "It just stood up and waddled right over to us," Fowler adds, noting the penguin "might have thought we were penguins because of our wet suits."

Carol Biddulph, a wildlife rehabilitator with the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, captured the malnourished penguin whose bones were visible through his skin, per ABC Australia. He weighed just 51 pounds—about half the typical weight for an adult male, per UPI. "We got it into a carrier, a large canvas pet carrier, nice and soft, and got it into the car and home," Biddulph tells ABC. She has a penguin enclosure, but "never in my wildest thoughts would I have thought I'd ever have an emperor penguin to care for," she adds. "It's such a privilege to be part of this bird's journey."

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Wild emperor penguins have turned up in New Zealand, but this is "the most northern sighting" of the largest penguin species, per ABC. Experts suspect Gus got lost while searching for food. It's unclear whether there will be an effort made to transfer the penguin back to Antarctica. "Options are still being worked through," the department tells the AP. For now, Gus is keeping cool in an enclosure with chilled water mist, per ABC. Fowler notes he initially seemed a little lost without snow. "He tried to do like, a slide on his belly, thinking it was snow I guess, and just face-planted in the sand," he says, per CBS News. (More emperor penguins stories.)