How did an Antarctic penguin end up in Australia?

An emperor penguin has been discovered waddling on an Australian beach, about 3,500 kilometres from its Antarctic home, according to a statement from the Western Australian state’s government.

Though Australia is known for its exotic array of animals – and there is a colony of 30cm high ‘little penguins’ in St Kilda, Melbourne – this is the first known sighting of an emperor penguin in the country. 

Emperor penguins are the tallest and heaviest of all living penguins and are usually found only in the Antarctic. 

How did an emperor penguin end up in Australia?

The adult male emperor penguin – affectionately nicknamed Gus – was discovered on 1 November by a surfer at a popular tourist beach in Denmark, southwest Australia. 

University of Western Australia research fellow Belinda Cannell explains that emperor penguins have previously reached New Zealand, Australia’s neighbour, but that she had “no idea” why Gus travelled to Denmark.

But Dee Boersma, professor of biology at the University of Washington and author of Penguins: Natural History and Conservation, told the New York Times that penguins move about in search of food, which was likely Gus’s primary motivation. “That crazy young penguin,” she added to the New York Times.

And record-low sea ice levels in the Antarctic may have driven this particular penguin far from home.

How will the emperor penguin get home to Antarctica?

Cannell is advising seabird rehabilitator Carol Biddulph, who is caring for Gus, spraying him with a chilled water mist to help him cope with his alien climate. 

Gus is showing signs of malnourishment: at one metre tall, he weighs in at only 23kg. A healthy male emperor penguin can usually weigh more than 45kg.

The Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions says its current focus is on rehabilitation, but that options to return Gus to his Antarctic home are “still being worked through”.