The wayward penguin known as “Happy Feet” has gone missing in the ocean south of New Zealand. There’s a slight chance scientists tracking the bird may hear from him again — if he’s still alive — but it could take years.
The emperor penguin’s satellite transmitter went silent on Friday, just five days after experts released the aquatic bird into the Southern Ocean about a quarter of the way down to Antarctica.
Experts said the most likely scenario is that the transmitter fell off. The small unit was attached to the bird’s feathers with super glue and was designed to fall off when he molted early next year.
Other possibilities are that Happy Feet was eaten by an orca or a leopard seal; that he died of natural causes; or that the transmitter malfunctioned.
Another device, a small chip implanted under the bird’s skin, could one day send a signal if it comes close enough to a monitoring site.
Happy Feet became an international celebrity when he was discovered in June on a New Zealand beach — 3,200km from his Antarctic home. The bird became sick from eating sand, which he likely mistook for snow, but was nursed back to health over two months at the Wellington Zoo.
After he was released from the deck of a research vessel, Happy Feet’s satellite tracker showed that he swam in a meandering route, ending up about 120km southeast of where he began when the last transmission was received on Friday morning. Experts say his looping pattern was typical for a penguin chasing fish.
Kevin Lay, a consultant with Sirtrack, which attached the tracking device, said staff have gone over diagnostics from the tracker and it appears it was functioning well until the last transmission.
“We think the most likely scenario is tag detachment,” Lay said. “The intention was always that the transmitter would fall off.”
That’s the scenario favored by Peter Simpson, a program manager at New Zealand’s department of conservation.
“Who knows? He’s probably swimming along quite happily without a transmitter on his back,” Simpson said.
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