AFP – Mon, Sep 12, 2011
Scientists
tracking Happy Feet, the wayward penguin who became a worldwide
celebrity after washing up on a New Zealand beach, said Monday they had
lost contact with the giant bird.
Happy Feet may have been eaten by
predators, or the tracking transmitter may have failed or fallen off as
the penguin swam in the sub-Antarctic waters where a New Zealand
research vessel dropped him off, researchers said.
"It is unlikely that we will ever know what caused the transmissions to cease, but it is time to harden up to the reality that the penguin has returned to the anonymity from which he emerged," he said.
Happy Feet, was released into the
water from the New Zealand fisheries vessel Tangaroa near Campbell
Island, about 700 kilometres (435 miles) south of New Zealand's South
Island.
The three-and-a-half year old
male's home in Antarctica was about 2,000 kilometres further south and
the hope was that he would join up with other emperor penguins on the
long voyage.
Miskelly said in his blog about the bird at www.tepapa.govt.nz that he had not given up hope of a happy ending for Happy Feet.
"Maybe, just maybe, he will
surprise us all by turning up at a monitored emperor penguin colony,
where the transponder inserted under the skin on his thigh will remind
us all that once upon a time, a long time ago, he was more than just
another penguin," he said.
Happy Feet was only the second emperor penguin ever recorded in New Zealand.
He was close to death and needed
surgery to remove sand and sticks from his stomach before he could be
fattened up at Wellington Zoo on a diet of fish milkshakes, attracting
international attention during his New Zealand sojourn.
Attendance at the zoo almost doubled during his stay and there are plans for a book and documentary recounting his story.
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