An emperor penguin from Antarctica made a surprise appearance at Ocean Beach in Denmark, Western Australia.
Australia’s Department of Biodiversity, Conservation, and Attractions (DBCA), in a statement sent to CNN on Wednesday, November 6, 2024, said that the penguin arrived on the coast of Western Australia on Friday, November 1, 2024.
According to the spokesperson, the “malnourished” penguin “remains in the care of a trained and registered local wildlife carer. The rehabilitation process is expected to take a few weeks.”
Moreover, Belinda Cannell, a research fellow, told ABC News that this is the first time an emperor penguin was spotted so far from the north.
Cannell explained, “What they tend to do is follow certain currents where they’re going to find lots of different types of food. So maybe those currents have just tended to be a little bit further north towards Australia than they normally would.”
Notably, Antarctica is more than 2,200 miles away from Ocean Beach, which means that the aquatic animal swam thousands and thousands of miles to reach Australia.
Local surfer Aaron Fowler, who saw the penguin emerging from the sea, said, “It was massive, it was way bigger than a seabird, and we’re like, what is that thing coming out of the water? And it kind of had a tail sticking out like a duck. It stood up in the waves and just waddled straight up to us, an emperor penguin, he was probably about a meter high, and he was not shy at all.”
Fowler describes that the penguin tried to do a slide on his belly, thinking it was snow, and after “face-planted in the sand and stood up and shook all the sand off.”
Emperor penguins are the tallest and heaviest among the 18 species of penguins. They could weigh up to 88 pounds (40 kilograms) and stand 45 inches (1.1 meters) tall.
