Antarctic penguin washes ashore nearly 2,000 miles from home

An Adélie penguin native to Antarctica washed ashore on the beaches of Birdlings Flat, New Zealand, this week, more than 1,800 miles from home.

The penguin, which locals have named Pingu, likely swam the entire distance from the shores of Antarctica to New Zealand, only the third time in history that an Adélie penguin has made it to the New Zealand coastline.

The penguin was found by Harry Singh, who, upon discovering it, thought the bird was a stuffed toy, according to an interview with the BBC. Singh filmed his first encounter with the flightless bird, which was exhausted and barely moving. Concerned that the penguin was not entering the water and that it could be a target for local predators, Singh called the local authorities.

"We did not want it to end up in a dog's or cat's stomach," Singh said.

A still from Singh's video, showing Pingu fluttering around the shores of Birdlings Flat, New Zealand.

New Zealand does have native penguin species, which is likely what the penguin rescuers, led by Thomas Stracke, who has cared for penguins on New Zealand's South Island for many years, were expecting to see. Instead, Stracke and his colleagues were stunned to realize it was an Adélie penguin that had made an extraordinarily long and arduous journey.

"Apart from being a bit starving and severely dehydrated, he was actually not too bad, so we gave him some fluids and some fish smoothie," Stracke told The Guardian.

Pingu has since been nursed back to health after he was given fluids and fed through a feeding tube. The bird was released into a bay on Banks Peninsula, with Stracke and his colleagues hoping the bird can make it home.

"I would have preferred to get him on the Hercules [air force plane] that drops staff at Scott Base [in Antaractia]," Stracke said, an idea shot down by the New Zealand Department of Conservation.

As far as researchers know, just three Adélie penguins have made it all the way to New Zealand, with the other two turning up in 1962 and in 1993.

In this file photo dated Dec. 12, 2005, tourists observe scores of Adelie penguins gathered at Brown Bluff on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. (AP Photo/Brian Witte)

Philip Seddon, a zoology professor at New Zealand's Otago University, told the Guardian that he believed Pingu might be a younger Adélie penguin that got caught in the current and taken on the ride of a lifetime. Seddon added that if more penguins like Pingu washed ashore, it could be a warning sign.

"All species of penguin are like marine sentinels ... when they're doing badly, they're giving us an early signal - canaries in coal mines - an early signal that things are not good," he said. "I think if we started getting annual arrivals of Adélie penguins, we'd go actually, something's changed in the ocean that we need to understand."

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