By NICK PERRY - Associated Press 
FILE - In this June 29, 2011 file photo, an Antarctic penguin that wound up stranded …
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Happy Feet is now a creature of the Internet age.
The wayward emperor penguin, discovered on a New Zealand beach six weeks ago, will soon be returned to the wild — but not before he picked up an online following of more than 120,000.
That's
how many unique visitors have logged onto a Web camera monitoring his
every move. Thousands more are expected to follow the updates after he's
released in coming weeks, with feeds from a GPS tracker attached to his
back posted online.
And then there's the chatter on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
His
followers don't seem bothered that Happy Feet, nicknamed after the 2006
animated movie, does little more than eat, sleep and occasionally
waddle.
"At 11:20 p.m. in New
Zealand, Happy Feet was sound asleep with his left foot and flipper
sticking out," one Facebook fan wrote. "Five minutes later, he pulled in
his left foot and flipper and just got up! :)"
The penguin
was found June 20 on Peka Peka Beach, about 40 miles (65 kilometers)
northwest of Wellington and far from his Antarctic feeding grounds. He
was moved four days later to the Wellington Zoo after becoming ill from eating sand, which he likely mistook for snow.
He has since gained weight and been given a clean bill of health to return to the ocean.
His
unusual journey captured worldwide interest, with local TV3 station
setting up a webcam on June 30 in his small, ice-filled room at the zoo.
The
phone calls began coming in soon after, even prompting the zoo one
night to send a veterinarian to check on the penguin after the station
was swamped by worried callers convinced Happy Feet had died, zoo
spokeswoman Kate Baker said. It turned out the penguin was sleeping.
One woman wrote an email to TV3 saying she was ill but taking "a lot of comfort in simply watching the penguin."
"It's
kind of like O. Henry's story 'The Leaf,'" wrote the woman, identified
as Janet in Chicago. "I feel as long as the penguin does well, I'll do
well."
The station's Wellington bureau chief, Gordon McBride, said he and a colleague came up with the webcam idea and the zoo agreed.
"It's such an unusual thing, and people like to see that," McBride said.
After
the "great response" to the penguin's webcam, the zoo is now
considering live streaming other animals and the zoo's medical
procedures, Baker said.
The zoo
raised the $10,000 through a public campaign to cover the costs of
housing Happy Feet, Baker said. It has also raised about $8,000 so far
for returning him to the sub-Antarctic ocean south of New Zealand — a
trip that could cost up to $30,000.
The
GPS tracker unit will likely come off when Happy Feet molts in April,
if not sooner, though the penguin has also been fitted with a microchip
that will be triggered if he roams near monitored colonies in
Antarctica, she said.
___
Online:
Happy Feet's webcam: http://www.3news.co.nz/Video/3NewsLiveStream/HappyFeetlivestream.aspx
For updates on the penguin's progress, go to "Wellington Zoo" on Facebook or Twitter.
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