A decent fellow: a penguin swims 3000 km from Antarctica to New Zealand

Updated on 12/11/2021 at 2:00 pm

• A rare guest of honor for New Zealand.
• A man spotted an Adélie penguin near Christchurch – and he usually lives about 3,000 km away.
• Since the penguin was underweight, he first got a tasty snack – at least for the penguins: fish juice.

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A rare guest: a penguin from Antarctica made the nearly 3,000-kilometre journey to New Zealand. The animal, an Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae), was spotted on a beach on the Banks Peninsula near Christchurch in the South Island by a local resident, New Zealand portal “Stuff” reported on Friday.

According to data from the New Zealand Birds Online encyclopedia, this was only the third time that the Adélie penguin had reached New Zealand from Antarctica. It was not clear at first why the flightless bird swam so far. According to the encyclopedia, Adélie penguins are abundant in the Ross Sea but rarely make their way to New Zealand.

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The penguin is dehydrated and underweight

Thomas Strack, the recalled penguin expert, said the penguin was a bit underweight and dehydrated, according to the portal. He got liquid and fish juices. The feathered visitor can be seen on a video in which he appears to be looking for a penguin shot and looks very hilarious. Stave reports that after staying in a care center in Christchurch, he was released back into the wild on Friday.

Before visiting the plane, the body of the Adélie penguin was found in Marlborough in 1962, and a live specimen was discovered in Kaikoura in 1993. According to the encyclopedia, one of the typical features of the Adélie penguin is the white ring around the eye, which can be clearly seen in the photos and video on the page “Stuff”. (dpa/mbo)
© dpa