The penguin appeared thousands of kilometers from home

An unusual event occurred on Ocean Beach, located near Denmark in Western Australia. Last Friday, an emperor penguin emerged from the waters of the Great Australian Bight.

Astonished beachgoers informed the services about the incident and they took care of the unusual guest. As described by a spokesman for the Department of Biological Diversity, Nature Conservation and Attractions, the animal appeared to be malnourished and was handed over to a trained wildlife carer.

One of the first people to spot the emperor penguin was a local surfer who saw the animal emerging from the water.

– It was huge, much bigger than a seabird, and we were like, what is that thing coming out of the water? And it had a tail sticking out like a duck's, described Aaron Fowler. He added that the penguin was about a meter tall and did not seem shy.

“He tried to do a kind of slide on his stomach, thinking it was snow, but he just hit the sand with his face, got up and shook it off,” he emphasized.

According to experts, this is the first time an emperor penguin has been spotted so far north. The bird lives in the wild only in Antarctica, over 3,500 kilometers away from Australia. According to Belinda Cannell from the University of Western Australia, the penguin could have followed a current flowing north from Antarctica.

– They usually follow certain currents where they can find many different types of food […] Perhaps these currents simply go a little further north, towards Australia, than usual, the specialist said.

Australian services informed that the penguin will remain in their care for the next few weeks.

In 2012, the International Union for Conservation of Nature raised the emperor penguin's extinction threat to “near threatened”.