This bird that cannot fly wants to fly.
A little blue penguin walked onto the runway at New Zealand’s Wellington National Airport, causing quite a stir – and a flight delay – before it was rescued, according to reports.
The penguin, known locally as a kororā, was spotted by an Air Chathams pilot shortly before take-off at about 2pm on January 12, prompting airport staff to run out and catch the bird, New Zealand outlet Stuff reported.
“Pilots and passengers waited patiently while Wellington Airport staff raced out to collect and assist visitors,” the airport said in a social media post.
The runway is located right along the New Zealand capital’s rocky coastline, according to the outlet.
A pilot spotted the penguin on the Wellington Airport runway on January 12. Instagram/@wellingtonairport Airport staff rescue the baby penguin, also known as kororā. Instagram/@wellingtonairport The penguin was taken to Wellington Zoo for treatment. Instagram/@wellingtonairport
A photo posted by the airport on social media Tuesday showed the penguin running on the sidewalk.
After it was caught, pictures showed the penguin looking distraught wrapped in a towel inside the vehicle.
Airport officials said the penguin was taken to Wellington Zoo to recover due to high temperatures.
“It’s a very unusual occurrence and there’s no record of penguins visiting us like this before,” Wellington Airport Wildlife Officer Jack Howarth told Stuff.
The penguin is believed to have slipped under a fence around the runway, prompting the airport to improve its fence “to prevent our overturned friends from trouble in the future,” the airport said.
The penguin is only six weeks old, according to a zoo spokesperson. Apart from being quite thin and hungry, the bird was “otherwise in good health,” they said.
Kororā is the smallest penguin species in the world and is usually only 10 inches tall and weighs about 2.5 pounds, according to the New Zealand Department of Conservation.
The penguins once inhabited much of New Zealand but have largely been pushed to offshore islands due to human activity and encroaching predators.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
