"Not Your Average Beach Day: Surfers Find Emperor Penguin Playing Tourist in Australia"
By Jill Dando News
Scientists believe the 2,100-mile journey is the longest recorded for the species, which lives in Antarctica
An emperor penguin has reached Australia in what scientists believe is the longest journey ever recorded for the species from its Antarctic homeland.
"It was massive, it was way bigger than a sea bird and we're like, what is that thing coming out of the water? And it kind of had a tail sticking out like a duck," said Aaron Fowler, a surfer in Western Australia who encountered the penguin waddling ashore at the weekend.
"It stood up in the waves and just waddled straight up to us, an emperor penguin, he was probably about a metre high, and he was not shy at all," Fowler told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation after photographing the penguin near the small town of Denmark, about 250 miles south of Perth.
Scientists believe the juvenile male swam more than 2,100 miles to reach Australia's southern coast from one of over 60 known emperor penguin colonies in eastern Antarctica.
Dr Belinda Cannell, a penguin expert at the University of Western Australia, said it was believed to be the longest journey north ever recorded by the largest of the penguin species.
"The tracked ones have never reached this far," Cannell said. "The furthest north they go from Antarctica is about 50 degrees south [latitude] from my readings and Ocean Beach [where the bird came ashore] is 35 degrees south, so a lot further north than what they've ever tracked juvenile penguins from Antarctica before."
"What they tend to do is follow certain currents where they're going to find lots of different types of food. So maybe those currents have just tended to be a little bit further north towards Australia than they normally would."
The species is threatened by rising sea temperatures, with the World Wildlife Fund estimating three quarters of emperor penguin breeding colonies are vulnerable due to sea ice loss.
"But, really, they're made for the cold, and so having them in areas that are outside the Antarctic means they get heat stressed very quickly. So why it got this far, I'd love to know."
