A juvenile male emperor penguin seriously fucked up last week, swimming to southwestern Australia where locals found him wandering around a beach, looking confused by the lack of ice and other penguins on the shore, roughly 2,200 miles from his native habitat, the ABC Australia reports.
“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,” surfer Aaron Fowler of the town of Denmark, Western Australia said. “There is always a bit of wildlife in the water but never a penguin.”
“He just looked absolutely flawless,” Fowler continued. [“The kids] were pretty excited, but I don’t think they understood the coolness of what was happening. He tried to do like a slide on his on his belly, thinking it was snow I guess and just face planted and stood up and shook all the sand off.”
University of Western Australia biologist Dr Belinda Cannell told ABC it was the highest latitude an emperor penguin has ever been observed. “The furthest north they go from Antarctica is about 50 degrees south [latitude] from my readings and Ocean Beach is 35 degrees south, so a lot further north than what they’ve ever tracked emperor penguins from Antarctica before.” Officials took the penguin to a registered wildlife center where he’s being cared for and examined by veterinarians.