Fattening Up for the Swim

Happy Feet, the lost emperor penguin who turned up alone on Kapiti Coast’s Peka Peka Beach a month ago, has been eating up to 2kg of high-grade salmon each day — funded through donations from the public and Wellington businessman Gareth Morgan, who chipped in with more than $5. “It’s a bloody expensive bird, I can tell you that much,” Dr Morgan said. Happy Feet, whose stomach was pumped clean of sand, now weighs 24.6kg, 2.6kg heavier than when he was first rescued, Wellington Zoo spokeswoman Kate Baker said. “He’s getting stronger and stronger every day,” Baker said. Peter Simpson of the Penguin Advisory Committee, which was set up to determine what to do with Happy Feet, said the bird needs to be completely ready to make the long swim home. A tracking device would be placed on Happy Feet, but he would be left to fend for himself once he was released, Simpson added. “It’ll be up to him at that stage — whatever it does is whatever it does.”