# Happy Feet (penguin)

Happy Feet was an emperor penguin who in June 2011 arrived at Peka Peka Beach in the Kāpiti Coast District of New Zealand's North Island, making him one of the northernmost emperor penguins ever recorded. After travelling about 3,200 kilometres (2,000 mi) to get there from Antarctica, he became the second emperor penguin to have been found in New Zealand, with the last being in 1967. After eating sand at the beach and filling his proventriculus (stomach) with it, he became lethargic, dehydrated and overheated. As a result, he was transported to Wellington Zoo and was given a 50 per cent chance of survival. Veterinarians removed most of the sand and he was kept at the zoo for 10 weeks to recover.
Happy Feet was released in the Southern Ocean on 4 September 2011, about 78 kilometres (48 mi) north of Campbell Island, at 51 degrees south. He was fitted with a GPS tracker so that his location could be tracked by the public, but it fell silent on 9 September. It is not known why this occurred. Possible explanations are that the tracker stopped working or had simply fallen off, or that Happy Feet had been eaten by a predator. John Cockrem of Massey University said at the time that it was "highly likely" that he was alive, as predators are uncommon at the location where he disappeared.
The story of Happy Feet received worldwide media attention, with over 600 media outlets covering it. He raised the public's awareness of wildlife, and for some time got more media attention than Prime Minister John Key. He was named after the 2006 film with the same name which features emperor penguins, was named Time magazine's runner-up 2011 animal of the year, and in late 2011 had a children's book published about him by Penguin Books.

## Arrival

Happy Feet was first found in the early afternoon of 20 June 2011 at Paraparaumu Beach in the Kāpiti Coast District of New Zealand's North Island. A few hours later he was found again at Peka Peka Beach, a few kilometres north of Paraparaumu. To get to the country, he swam about 3,200 kilometres (2,000 mi) from Antarctica. This was only a few kilometres south of the world's northernmost recorded emperor penguin. No one knows why he swam so far, but it has been speculated that it was either because he was sick, because he got stuck in a current, or because he was a 'straggler'—a wandering animal. The behaviour of wandering is believed by ecologists to have evolved as a way to start new colonies by chance. Almost all stragglers die in the process, but some do set up new colonies. He was the second recorded emperor penguin in New Zealand, with the last being found in 1967, at Southland's Oreti Beach. He was named after the 2006 film Happy Feet, which features emperor penguins. Happy Feet was initially estimated by an expert to be about three years old, but further analysis has suggested that he was about 11 months old at the time of his arrival. Two weeks after his arrival, a DNA test of a feather sample determined that he was male.
A Kāpiti resident walking her dog found Happy Feet at Peka Peka Beach, and then notified the Department of Conservation (DOC) Waikanae office. A ranger subsequently went to take a look at the bird, a juvenile with a height of about 1 metre (3 ft). Happy Feet was reported as being "initially bright-eyed, alert, and in apparent good condition". Hundreds to thousands of people went to visit him at the beach, including people who work for the news, school students, veterinarians and a penguin expert from Massey University. To protect Happy Feet, the Kāpiti Coast District Council closed the beach off to vehicles and placed security guards there, and locals kept watch of the penguin 24 hours a day. A cordon was placed around Happy Feet, originally at 5 metres (16 ft) and later 50 metres (160 ft), and he was ensured to have sea access at all times.
At the beach Happy Feet had been eating sand and sticks. He is believed to have mistaken the sand for snow, which emperor penguins normally eat and use to cool down—something that Happy Feet was attempting to do. Associate Professor John Cockrem of Massey University has suggested that the penguin had never seen sticks before, and may have mistaken them for fish. Experts chose initially not to intervene because they were unsure if the bird was going to regurgitate the sand on his own, and because he appeared to be in a good state of health. However, by the morning of 24 June, Happy Feet was lethargic, dehydrated, overheated, had problems with swallowing, occasionally attempted to spit sand, and, with the temperature being about 10 °C (50 °F), was stressed due to the relative warmth of New Zealand's climate. Because of this, at the noon of the same day, Happy Feet was placed in an ice-filled plastic tub and was transported to Wellington Zoo's animal hospital The Nest Te Kōhanga by Te Papa and DOC.

## Healthcare

After Happy Feet's arrival at the zoo, veterinarians anaesthetised him and took x-rays, which showed that his oesophagus and proventriculus (stomach) were full of sand. As a result, a stomach rupture was considered possible, and veterinarians gave him a 50 per cent chance of survival. Surgery was considered to be a 'worst case scenario' due to the potential dangers. Veterinarians also pumped water down his throat to flush out most of the sand in his oesophagus, and put him on an intravenous drip due to dehydration. Overnight, Happy Feet passed some sand, meaning that some had gone through his digestive system.
On 27 June, veterinarians flushed sand out of Happy Feet's stomach and removed sticks, stones and netting, which involved an endoscopy to look inside him, but about 8–10 handfuls of sand remained. About 100 people watched this through the operating theatre's window. Happy Feet was given oily foods and laxatives to help him pass the remaining sand. On 28 June, about half of the sand was removed in an operation. His fourth and final operation was performed on 2 July, to flush out more stomach contents. Stones were found in the penguin's proventriculus after x-rays were taken to make sure that all the sand had been taken out. In total, about 2 kilograms (4.4 lb) of sand was removed from him.
In the zoo Happy Feet had a bed of ice to sleep on, and his room was kept at 8 °C (46 °F). He also had an outdoor saltwater pool, which he swam in during a day in July and for some time in August. The gastroenterologist John Wyeth, who specialises on humans, worked on Happy Feet. The penguin was in Wellington for 10 weeks.

## Release

On about 27 June, a penguin advisory committee was formed to make a decision on what to do with Happy Feet. It had experts from Wellington Zoo, DOC, Te Papa and Massey University who debated on whether Happy Feet should be released or kept captive. Arguments for captivity were that releasing him would cause him a lot of stress, that he posed a risk of introducing viruses to colonies in Antarctica, and the fact that he may not find the colony that he came from. One problem with captivity was that New Zealand does not have the facilities to provide the climatic conditions he needed. California does, but moving him there would cause him stress. Another problem was that New Zealand does not house any emperor penguins; if he was moved to the International Antarctic Centre in Christchurch for example, he would be isolated. The media had also suggested that he be euthanised or released back to Peka Peka Beach.
On 29 June, the committee unanimously decided that Happy Feet would be released into the Southern Ocean after recovering, where juvenile penguins are found. Releasing him on Antarctica is illegal without a permit due to the Antarctic Treaty, which New Zealand is a signatory of, saying that precautions must be taken to prevent the introduction of micro-organisms (such as viruses). Happy Feet could have caught a disease on his way to New Zealand, and releasing him back in Antarctica could introduce it there. Cockrem believed that if he was released in sub-Antarctic waters and swam to Antarctica on his own, any disease would disappear naturally. In late July, the zoo estimated that it would cost about $30,000 to return Happy Feet to the wild. They originally planned on moving Happy Feet to Bluff, in the southern South Island, via air or truck, then sailing past Stewart Island and then releasing him.
On the day before Happy Feet left the zoo, a "Haere Ra Happy Feet" (farewell) party was held, which was attended by over 1,700 people. Visitors were encouraged to sign a card and leave messages for him, dress up in black and white, and make donations. Before the penguin left the zoo, a microchip transponder was put under the skin of his right thigh, and a satellite transmitter was glued to and cable tied on to the feathers of his back. It was designed to fall off when he moulted.
Happy Feet left Wellington Zoo on 29 August 2011 in a 'travel crate', designed by veterinarian Lisa Argilla, so that he would be cold and comfortable as he travelled out to sea, on NIWA's RV Tangaroa, which was doing a fisheries survey. From Wellington, the ship travelled 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) south-southwest over the next five days, during which the penguin was given fish to eat, and was kept cool with 60 buckets of ice. The crew released Happy Feet on 4 September at 10:30 am, about 78 kilometres (48 mi) north of Campbell Island, which is 51 degrees south and about 1,250 kilometres (780 mi) south of Peka Peka Beach. After initially being 'reluctant' to leave his crate, Argilla gave the penguin a "little tap on his back" to encourage him to leave it. He then he slid down into the water off a 'penguin slide' made for him using a tarpaulin at the ship's stern, and then resurfaced about two metres behind the ship, looked back at the people on board, and then went back under the water. The slide was one of two options for releasing him, the other being to lower him down to the sea in a smaller boat, where a worker would put him into the water. This option was not used due to the sea conditions.
After Happy Feet left the ship, the public was able to track his location on a website online. The tracker said that over five days after release, the penguin moved south-east by total of about 113 kilometres (70 mi), at an average speed of 1.2 kilometres per hour (0.75 mph). At 8 am on 9 September 2011 the transmitter went silent, meaning that it had not gone above water since then. No one knowns for certain why this happened, but the most probable reasons are that either the transmitter fell off, possibly caused by him pecking at it, or he was eaten by a predator. Cockrem said on 13 September that it was "highly likely" that Happy Feet was still alive at that time, as he was not south enough to encounter predators such as leopard seals. He believed that the tracker had simply fallen off. Another theory at the time was that recent solar flares had caused transmission problems.
While Happy Feet was still in a critical condition, economist Gareth Morgan offered to take the penguin and a DOC minder on a Russian icebreaker ship that was going to the Ross Sea, to Scott Base, for the "Our Far South" expedition, which he had organised. This was suggested to him by his granddaughter, who was visiting Wellington Zoo at the time of Happy Feet's first operation. The 30-day expedition started in early 2012. Morgan said that they would try to find Happy Feet, by using the chip that was implanted into him.

## Cost

Over $30,000 had been spent on Happy Feet by September. Wellington Zoo raised $29,000 by the time he left the zoo, and had a 50 per cent increase in vistors in the month of July 2011 compared to July 2010, which the zoo has attributed to the penguin as well as new exhibits. The Sunday Star Times wrote in July 2011 that this would likely pay for the zoo's costs for Happy Feet's recovery.
The snack manufacturer Bluebird Foods, who uses penguins in their advertisements, announced in July that they would donate five cents towards Happy Feet for every packet of "Kiwi As" chips sold until November. They expected to sell 400,000 packets, which would have resulted in a donation of $20,000. Morgan, who called Happy Feet a "bloody expensive bird", fundraised for the cost of the penguin and matched every dollar donated to the campaign. Morgan paid for Happy Feet's transmitter, and the aquaculture firm New Zealand King Salmon donated 100 kilograms (220 lb) of salmon smolt.
Happy Feet arrived at a time when public funding for DOC was being cut. The money spent on Happy Feet's recovery also acted as a way to increase the New Zealand public's awareness of birds and wildlife due to the amount of media attention he received. Kevin Hackwell of Forest & Bird said that Wellington Zoo would be "damned if they do [help Happy Feet] and damned if they don't. They certainly would have been criticised if they hadn't helped." It was argued by The Dominion Post that the $30,000 spent on Happy Feet could have instead been spent on restoring a wetland or forest remnant, which would help several birds instead of just one. Rehabilitating one bird would probably not help the species.

## Media coverage

Happy Feet received worldwide media coverage, with over 600 media outlets reporting on the story, including from the countries of Australia, Britain, Canada, the United States, China and Sweden. He raised the public's awareness of wildlife and for some time received more media attention than Prime Minister John Key. The penguin got much more attention than the only other recorded emperor penguin in New Zealand, who arrived in 1967.
On 30 June, TV3 set up a webcam for the public to watch him eat and sleep and live in the zoo, which ended up being watched by 312,000 individuals. At one point several viewers phoned TV3 because they thought that Happy Feet had died, but he was just asleep. After the penguin was released, members of the Our Far South expedition reported on the channel's news programme 3 News his location nightly during their weather reports. The English actor Stephen Fry visited Happy Feet in his room after filming with the zoo's chimpanzees for a BBC programme.

## Legacy

During a Parliament question time in October 2011, Green MP Gareth Hughes asked the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Phil Heatley, if it was possible that Happy Feet had been killed by a trawler. Heatley replied by saying that the fishing industry was not to blame. In his valedictory speech near the end of the 50th Parliament in July 2014, Heatley said this was his favourite question time in his 15 years in Parliament.
In November 2011 a statue of Happy Feet was unveiled at the Coastlands Shopping Centre in Paraparaumu, to fundraise for the construction of the Coastlands Aquatic Centre. Wellington Zoo nurse Sarah Holleman, who worked with Happy Feet, helped with the sculpture. The statue was later moved to the aquatic centre, and Happy Feet became its mascot.
In 2011 The Guardian reported that people were planning on creating a documentary about him. Christine Wilton, the woman who discovered Happy Feet at the beach and reported him to DOC, wrote a children's book about Happy Feet in 2011. Penguin Books published a children's book about the penguin in late 2011.
In December 2011, Time magazine named Happy Feet as the runner-up 2011 animal of the year, behind the dog Cairo, who helped with the killing of Osama bin Laden. Happy Feet boosted votes for the emperor penguin in the annual Bird of the Year competition, which ended up ranking 12th. This was the first year that the emperor penguin was in the competition. A juvenile royal penguin that washed up in New Zealand in 2013 after travelling for about 12 months at sea was named Happy Feet junior. It died at Wellington Zoo.