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| Edited By: |Source: IANS |Updated: Mar 11, 2018, 04:13 AM IST
A penguin took a wrong turn in the Antarctic and landed up some 4,000 miles away in New Zealand, a media report said Friday.
The ten-month-old bird has been moved to Wellington Zoo so it can be better looked after, Daily Mail reported.
The penguin was taken to a hospital after it had eaten sand that it confused with snow. It showed signs of distress as it waddled up and down the Peka Peka Beach on the North Island.
Emperor penguins, the largest of the species, normally feed on fish, krill, and squid.
The penguin probably started eating the sand to cool itself down as they normally do with snow if they get too hot, the Mail quoted Peter Simpson of New Zealand's conservation department as saying.
Despite it being winter in New Zealand, the country is enjoying temperatures of up to 18 degrees Celsius - too warm for a bird who is around 4,000 miles from its frozen Antarctic home.
Simpson said: "Temperature is a major issue for it. We need to monitor its well-being in these sorts of climates."
Emperor penguins typically spend their entire lives in Antarctica. It has been 44 years since one was last spotted in New Zealand, according to the Mail.
"If we can nurse it back to health we might be able to reintroduce it to the sea in the hope it will swim back to Antarctica," Simpson said.
Flying the penguin back home was not possible, he said, because it is winter in Antarctica which means 24-hour darkness.
