Emperor penguin “Gus” swims from Antarctica and is found on the coast of Australia, protected for 20 days before being released into the ocean.

Melbourne, Australia — the only emperor penguin Known to have swam from Antarctica to Australia Officials announced Friday that the animal was released at sea, 20 days after it tottered onto a popular tourist beach.

The adult male was found on November 1 in the Ocean Beach sand dunes in the town of Denmark in Australia’s temperate south-west region, the Western Australian government said. It is located approximately 3,200 miles north of the icy waters off the coast of Antarctica. He was released from the Parks and Wildlife Service boat on Wednesday.

The boat traveled several hours from Albany, the state’s southernmost city, to release the penguins into the Southern Ocean, but the government did not specify the distance in a statement.

He is being cared for by registered wildlife conservationist Carol Biddulph, who named him Gus after the first Roman Emperor Augustus.

“We really didn’t know if it was going to survive in the first place because it was undernourished,” Biddulph said in a video recorded before the bird’s release shared by the government on Friday.

“I’m going to miss Gus. It’s been an incredible few weeks. It was an event I couldn’t miss,” she added.

Biddulph said while caring for other types of solitary penguins, he realized that mirrors provide a comforting sense of company and are an important part of their rehabilitation.

“He loved big mirrors and I think that was very important to his health. They are social birds and he stood next to the mirror most of the time,” she said. .

Gus gained weight under her care, growing from 47 pounds when he was found to 54 pounds. His height is 39 inches. A healthy male emperor penguin can weigh more than 100 pounds.

University of Western Australia researcher Belinda Cannell said the largest penguin species had never been reported in Australia before, with some reaching New Zealand and almost all south of Western Australia. .

The government said there was an urgent need to return the gas to the ocean, where it can regulate body temperature, as summer in the southern hemisphere approaches.

Emperor penguins are known to travel up to 1,000 miles on foraging trips lasting up to a month, the government said.

They are among the species directly threatened by threats such as: Rising temperatures in oceans and oceans around the world. According to the World Wildlife Foundation, about three-quarters of the world’s breeding colonies of emperor penguins are susceptible to annual ocean fluctuations. Antarctic ice sheethas become much more unstable due to climate change.

Penguins breed and live on sea ice, but Antarctic sea ice is disappearing due to global warming.

“They show up during the breeding season, but there’s no ice there, so they don’t have a place to breed,” said Birgitte, an ecologist at the Moss Landing Marine Laboratory, which is funded by San Jose State University. Dr. McDonald says: told CBS San Francisco last year.

An analysis by scientists at the University of Cambridge, published last year in Science News, found that “ice melting in certain areas, particularly early in the year”, put emperor chicks at extreme risk. .

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