Antarctic penguin long way from home

An Antarctic penguin has unexpectedly made a 2900km journey across an expanse of icy ocean to New Zealand.

A penguin enjoying the spring sunshine at Yankee Harbour in the South Shetland Islands near the Antarctic Peninsula. Picture: David May.

An Antarctic penguin has unexpectedly made a 2900km journey across an expanse of icy ocean to New Zealand.

The young adult Adelie penguin, a species native to the Antarctica coastline, made landfall at Birdlings Flat Beach near Christchurch last Wednesday.

It is only the second recorded live Adelie penguin to arrive in New Zealand. A corpse was found in 1962 and a live Adelie penguin was said to have been found on the coast of the upper South Island in 1993.

Harry Singh was walking along Birdlings Flat Beach when he saw the penguin, which he at first thought was a discarded toy. But the bird moved its head and so he called Thomas Stracke, a wildlife rescuer. “I never expected an Adelie when I got the call,” said Mr Stracke, who estimated that the penguin was one or two years old and gave it fluids and fish. A vet who examined it on the beach found it to be dehydrated and underweight.

Attempts by Mr Stracke to ­arrange for the penguin to be ­returned to Antarctica aboard a regular Royal New Zealand Air Force flight to the country’s base there have been rebuffed. It has now been released close to where it was found in the hope that it will find its own way back.

Adelie populations are either declining or are expected to drop in the next 40 years as sea ice ­decreases, prompting changes in the migration patterns of Antarctica’s penguins.

The Times