Members of the Pinamar Ecological Foundation made a surprising discovery on a beach south of Buenos Aires last August. Standing in the sand was an injured king penguin, the species closest to emperor penguins, who seemed to be lost. King penguins are adapted to cold temperatures and inhabit mostly subantarctic islands far south from the Buenos Aires coast, making such a sighting rare. The penguin’s coat was torn open, missing feathers and with red gaping wounds across his back. It appeared that the bird had been attacked by dogs.
Workers for the Mundo Marino Foundation were notified after the rare sighting and the bird was able to be brought to the Foundation’s rescue center for treatment and rehabilitation. An enclosure had to be created to address the bird’s need for cool temperatures, using ice blocks and fans to simulate a king penguin’s subantarctic habitat.
Juana Caferri, a veterinarian at the Mundo Marino Foundation, explained that the rehabilitation required months of recovery for the king penguin, “Although the injuries healed, the affected areas were left without feather cover, which prevented the animal from conserving heat in aquatic environments. Only when the down began to regenerate and the feathers completely covered those areas could we consider releasing it from the veterinarian’s care and subsequently returning it to the sea.”
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The veterinarian’s efforts were successful, though. Six months after the bird was initially found on the beach, Mundo Marino Foundation released footage recently of the king penguin being released from an enclosure and cautiously waddling out into the sand of the Argentinian coast. Accompanied by workers from the Foundation, the penguin eventually stepped into the surf and swam away into the ocean.
Weather.com copy writer Wyatt Williams is exploring the relationship between weather, food, agriculture, and the natural world.
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