Happy Feet The Penguin Missing In Southern Ocean

[Purveyor]

By Agence France-Presse
Monday, September 12th, 2011 -- 8:11 am

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.

Researchers said they had received no transmissions since last Friday from a satellite tracking device that was attached to the penguin after he was released into the icy Southern Ocean on September 4.

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.

Colin Miskelly, an animal expert from Wellington's Te Papa museum who advised on Happy Feet's two-month rehabilitation when he was found emaciated and near death in late June, said efforts would continue to relocate the bird.

MORE...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/12/happy-feet-the-penguin-missing-in-southern-ocean/

[glinda]

1. Hate these stories.He should have gone to a zoo. People are soooo stuuuupid.

[TexasProgresive]

2. Shammu had lunch. n/t

[Marnie]

4. Most likely

[Marnie]

3. Release a "herd" or "flock" animal to try to survive solo

is pretty much a death sentence.

[awoke_in_2003]

5. "may have been eaten by predators"...

such is nature, no matter how hard people try to anthropomorphise it. Orkas need to eat, too, and they are not any less "cute" than penguins.

[Matilda]

6. He swam all the way from the Antarctic to New Zealand,

so there's nothing to say he couldn't make it back again.

I believe the glued-on transmitter just fell off, and he's happily paddling his way back home. Anything else is unthinkable. Until anything else is proven, I will continue to believe.

Say it with me: I believe ...