Happy Feet is fine: the lost penguin who ate sand instead of snow underwent surgery
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himLast week they found him, exhausted and thirsty, wandering around along the coasts of New Zealand: the emperor penguin ofAntarctic, in his migratory phase towards his home, he took the wrong road and traveled further in vain 4.000 kilometers.
Stunned, not only by the distance traveled, but also by the climate change, Happy Feet (this is the nickname attributed to the penguin from the 3D animated film of the same name) has ate the sand he found in the new habitat, mistaking it for snowin an effort to hydrate.
Thankfully, it was rescue in time by a team of veterinarians who immediately operated on him: with an endoscopy, an operation usually dedicated to humans, the doctors inserted a video camera into the animal's intestine and washed by removing all sand that the penguin had ingested in an attempt to hydrate.
Everything went well: the operation was completely successful and the penguin is now recovering, but before returning to its habitat it will have to wait about three months. According to Kate Baker, one of the managers of the Wellington zoo, it will take some time before the bird can recover, but in the meantime it will be fed with smoothie fish.
At this point, however, a consideration spontaneously arises: if a penguin takes the wrong road, loses its orientation and gets to eat sand instead of snow, won't it be a clear signal of error for humans? A U-turn is needed!
