The emperor penguin who swam from Antarctica to Australia has been released to see after he ended up at the shore of a popular tourist beach.
The adult male penguin was discovered at the Ocean Beach sand dunes on November 1 in the town of Denmark, southwest Australia over 3,500 kilometres north of the frozen and cold waters of Antarctica, the Western Australia state government said.
The bird was released into the Southern Ocean from a Parks and Wildlife Service boat on Wednesday after it travelled for several hours from the city of Albany, according to the New York Post.
Registered wildlife caregiver Carol Biddulph had cared for the penguin and named him Gus, short for the first Roman emperor Augustus.
“I really didn’t know whether he was going to make it to begin with because he was so undernourished,” Biddulph said in a video recorded before the bird’s release.
“I’ll miss Gus. It’s been an incredible few weeks, something I wouldn’t have missed,” she added.
“He absolutely loves his big mirror and I think that has been crucial in his well-being. They’re social birds and he stands next to the mirror most of the time,” she said.
Gus also gained weight in her care. When he was found, he weighed 21.3 kilogrammes (47 pounds) and at the time of his release, he weighed 24.7 kilogrammes (54 pounds).
Interestingly, emperor penguins are known to swim and cover up to 1,6000 kilometres (1,000 miles) on foraging journeys that last up to a month, the government added.