MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The only emperor penguin known to have swum from Antarctica to Australia has been released into the sea 20 days after waddling ashore at a popular tourist beach, officials said Friday.
The adult male was found on November 1 in the sand dunes of Ocean Beach in the city of Denmark in Australia's temperate south-west – about 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) north of the icy waters off the Antarctic coast, the state government of Western Australia said . He was released from a Parks and Wildlife Service boat on Wednesday.
The boat traveled several hours from the state's southernmost city, Albany, before the penguin was released into the Southern Ocean, but the government did not indicate the distance in its statement.
He was cared for by registered wildlife carer Carol Biddulph, who named him Gus after the first Roman Emperor Augustus.
“I really didn't know at first if he was going to make it because he was so malnourished,” Biddulph said in a video recorded before the bird's release but released by the government on Friday.
'I'll miss Gus. It's been an incredible few weeks, something I wouldn't have wanted to miss,” she added.
Biddulph said that through caring for other species of solitary penguins, she had discovered that mirrors were an important part of their rehabilitation, as they provided a comforting sense of company.
“He absolutely loves his big mirror and I think that has been crucial to his well-being. They are social birds and he spends most of the time next to the mirror,” she said.
Gus gained weight in her care, from 21.3 kg (47 pounds) when he was found to 24.7 kg (54 pounds). It is 1 meter (39 in) long. A healthy male emperor penguin can weigh more than 45 kilograms.
The largest penguin species has never been reported in Australia before, said University of Western Australia research fellow Belinda Cannell, although some had reached New Zealand, almost all of which is further south than Western Australia.
The government said that as summer approaches in the Southern Hemisphere, it was critical to return Gus to the ocean where he could thermoregulate.
Emperor penguins are known to travel up to 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) on foraging trips that can last up to a month, the government said.
