An Antarctic penguin has traversed 3,000km of icy waters to find himself far from home and on new and puzzling shores: the south-eastern coastline of
New Zealand.
The Adélie penguin in question, affectionately named “Pingu” by locals, was spotted looking somewhat lost at Birdlings Flat, a small settlement on New Zealand’s South Island.
It’s only the third recorded instance of a live Adélie penguin – a species that makes its home on the Antarctic peninsula – making it to New Zealand. Its arrival is a reminder of the threats the birds face from warming waters, increased competition over food supplies, and changed habitats.
After observing that the penguin was not getting in the water and could be vulnerable to dogs, locals called Thomas Stracke of Christchurch Penguin Rehabilitation.
Stracke said when he arrived with a vet, he was shocked to find an Adélie penguin. “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 said. The penguin was released into a bay on the banks peninsula, where his helpers hope he may be able to make the journey home.
“I would have preferred to get him on the Hercules [air force plane] that drops staff at Scott Base,” Stracke said, but he was told by the Department of Conservation that the idea was not feasible. “They had a meeting with the other big penguin guns and they said no.”
Stracke said warming waters meant the birds were struggling to find food supply.
“When the waters warm up because the fish usually go into deeper cold waters. And so there’s no fish around,” he said.
New Zealand’s populations of yellow-eyed penguins were also struggling as they competed with fishing businesses for food and the rehabilitation centre was seeing increasing numbers of malnourished or starving penguins come in, he said, calling the situation a “nightmare”.
