Lost emperor penguin lands in Australian town thousands of miles away from icy Antarctica home

A lone and lost emperor penguin turned up in a western Australian town, nearly 2,100 miles (3300km) away from its home in Antarctica.

The male penguin arrived in Denmark town on Friday.

It was the farthest north the bird had ever been seen.

Aaron Fowler, 37, was one of the first people to spot the bird. He was at the local beach with his friend when he “saw something coming out” of the water.

"It was massive, it was way bigger than a sea bird and we are like, what is that thing coming out of the water? And it kind of had a tail sticking out like a duck," he was reported as saying by ABC News. "It stood up in the waves and just waddled straight up to us, an emperor penguin, he was probably about a metre high, and he was not shy at all.”

Australia’s Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions said the penguin appeared “malnourished”, but remained “in the care of a trained and registered local wildlife carer”.

Belinda Cannell, a research fellow at the University of Western Australia, said this was the first time an emperor penguin had been so far north. It likely followed a current to Australia.

"What they tend to do is follow certain currents where they are going to find lots of different types of food,” Ms Cannelll explained. “So maybe those currents have just tended to be a little bit further north towards Australia than they normally would.”

Mr Fowler said the bird looked “absolutely flawless”.

He had always seen wildlife in the water but was stunned to see a penguin, he said.

"He tried to do like a slide on his belly, thinking it was snow I guess and just face planted in the sand and stood up and shook all the sand off,” Mr Fowler said of the visitor.

The loss of sea ice in the Antarctic has caused unprecedented breeding failure among emperor penguins, researchers said. The frozen continent has seen four years with the lowest sea ice extent since 2016.

In the past, emperor penguins responded to the loss of sea ice by moving to more stable sites the next year. They usually stayed close to their old homes, however.