Fed, Feisty and Homeward Bound

Some 1700 people turned up at Wellington Zoo to farewell Happy Feet, the emperor penguin who captured New Zealand’s heart after being washed up sick and starving on Kapiti Coast’s Peka Peka beach 3000km from his Antarctic home. The penguin will travel aboard NIWA’s research ship Tangaroa which will release him near 53 degrees south, about 63km south of New Zealand. The penguin has had a tracking device, about half the size of a mobile phone, fitted to feathers on his lower back with super-strength glue. Friends can track him on www.sirtrack.com and www.ourfarsouth.org. Zoo officials said the penguin, estimated to be three-and-a-half years old — 18 months short of maturity — is now healthy and able to survive in the ocean. Zoo veterinarian Lisa Argilla said he cannot wait to go home. “He wants to leave,” Argilla told The Dominion Post. “He’s really stroppy. His personality has changed. He’s a lot more feisty. He doesn’t like us holding him and manhandling him to give him medication.”