A young penguin is proving a hit with locals on a New Zealand beach after apparently taking a wrong turn while swimming near Antarctica.
The bird made the 2,000-mile journey to New Zealand, the first time in 44 years that one of the creatures has been sighted there in the wild.
Dog-walker Christine Wilton, who discovered the bird on Peka Peka Beach, said: "It was out-of-this-world to see it. Like someone just dropped it from the sky."
Believed to be about 10 months old, the Emperor penguin is 32 inches tall and may have been searching for squid and krill when it got lost, according to experts.
Emperors are the tallest and largest species of penguin. They can grow up to four feet tall and weigh more than 75 pounds.
Their journey to breeding grounds deep in the Antarctic was chronicled in the 2005 documentary March Of The Penguins, which revealed their amazing ability to survive and breed despite the region's brutal winter.
Emperor penguins can spend months at a time in the ocean, coming ashore only to molt or rest, said Colin Miskelly, a curator at Te Papa museum of New Zealand .
Mr Miskelly said the penguin appeared healthy and well-fed, with plenty of body fat and probably came ashore for a rest.
But he warned it needs to find its way back south soon if it is to survive.
"It doesn't realise that the sand [it is eating] isn't going to melt inside it," Mr Miskelly said. "They typically eat snow, because it's their only liquid."
However the bird is in no immediate danger from dehydration because Emperor penguins can also drink salt water in the summer, he added.
People have been gathering on the beach to watch the penguin on the beach on North Island's western coast. Some photographed him as he stood quietly on the sand or lay in the surf.
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