{"id":356248,"date":"2026-03-31T03:55:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/356248\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:55:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:55:21","slug":"antarctic-penguin-appears-on-remote-wa-beach-4000km-from-home-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/356248\/","title":{"rendered":"Antarctic penguin appears on remote WA beach, 4000km from home"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Katrina Tap, ABC<\/p>\n

\"King<\/p>\n

\nKing Penguin near Esperance, Western Australia.
\nPhoto: Mihkel\/no postcode\/Instagram\n<\/p>\n

A king penguin from the sub-Antarctic region has been found more than 4,000 kilometres away from home on a remote beach on Western Australia’s south coast.<\/p>\n

Esperance Wildlife Hospital was alerted by campers on Quagi Beach, almost 700km from Perth, to the penguin on shore.<\/p>\n

Rescuer and wildlife carer Lori-Ann Shibish said it was not uncommon for smaller penguin species to lose their way and end up on that stretch of coastline.<\/p>\n

“I just assumed it was going to be a little penguin,” she said.<\/p>\n

“When we got there, we weren’t ready for what we found.”<\/p>\n

Having previously been to Antarctica for a research expedition, Shibish instantly recognised it was a king penguin.<\/p>\n

King penguins are the second-largest penguin species and live in ice-free parts of the sub-Antarctic region.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\nKing penguins live in ice-free parts of the sub-Antarctic region. (File photo)
\nPhoto:\n<\/p>\n

The region is home to remote Australian territories McDonald Island, Macquarie Island, and Heard Island.<\/p>\n

In 2025, a deadly strain of avian influenza, commonly referred to as “bird flu”, was confirmed on Heard Island.<\/p>\n

Shibish said there had been an alert issued for any migratory or vagrant species from that region since the flu was detected.<\/p>\n

The discovery of the penguin prompted a “high-level” biosecurity response from Shibish, using an avian influenza grab kit from Murdoch University to mitigate any possible risk of disease transmission.<\/p>\n

“If you can picture a full hazmat gear, I was completely dressed in white with goggles and with a breathing mask and gloves, in order to ensure that we and the penguin were safe,” she said.<\/p>\n

The penguin was taken back to the Esperance Wildlife Hospital, where Swans Veterinarian Services and the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) conducted swab testing for the disease.<\/p>\n

“The good news is the results returned negative for both H1N1 and something called Newcastle disease,” Shibish said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\nA king penguin spotted on the Otago Peninsula. (File photo)
\nPhoto: Supplied \/ Jeff Yen\n<\/p>\n

Sighting ‘rare’<\/p>\n

Shibish said it was extremely rare for king penguins to venture so far off course.<\/p>\n

After looking back through other recorded sightings, Shibish believes this was the first sighting in WA since 2011.<\/p>\n

In 2024, an emperor penguin made a similar journey from Antarctica to another beach on WA’s south coast, almost 500km from where the king penguin was discovered.<\/p>\n

Shibish said Carol Bidulp, who cared for the emperor penguin, had been a great mentor.<\/p>\n

Rest and rehabilitation<\/p>\n

The penguin, who has been named Hope, will remain in a quarantine pen while she undergoes rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

“Esperance is a French word for hope, but referring more to positive expectation or anticipation, rather than a wish,” Ms Shibish said.<\/p>\n

Hope is undergoing a process called “catastrophic moult”, according to Ms Shibish, which may be the reason she came to shore.<\/p>\n

“Prior to a catastrophic moult, a penguin will eat as much as it can to put on that extra weight to then take it through the month-long period where it just has to stand on dry land and wait for the process to complete,” she said.<\/p>\n

“When she came in, she wasn’t at her optimum weight, she was already down by about 6 kilograms.”<\/p>\n

Hope is now eating up to a kilogram of fish a day, and must regain her weight and finish her moult before she is released for her journey home.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, a mirror has been put in her enclosure to keep her company.<\/p>\n

“With animals that are herd or flock animals, being able to see a reflection of their own kind puts them at ease because they think that they’re not alone,” Ms Shibish said.<\/p>\n

“They think they’re in the company of their own species.”<\/p>\n

– ABC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Katrina Tap, ABC King Penguin near Esperance, Western Australia. Photo: Mihkel\/no postcode\/Instagram A king penguin from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45,147,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-356248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}