A second king penguin has been spotted on mainland Tasmania, with one wildlife officer calling the sighting especially rare "unless you're on a tourist ship going to Antarctica".
Key points:
A king penguin was spotted by kayakers on a beach at Port Davey in Tasmania's far south-west
The species is usually seen 1,500km further south in Sub-Antarctic regions such as Macquarie Island
It is the second such unusual sighting this year, but a wildlife officer says it is no cause for concern
The penguin was spotted by kayakers at Port Davey in Tasmania's far south-west.
Wildlife officer Julie McInnes said it was a different penguin to the bird spotted at Seven Mile Beach near Hobart last month.
Dr McInnes said it was unusual to have two king penguins sighted in one year.
"This is a really rare thing for people to see, unless you're on a tourist ship going to Antarctica," Dr McInnes told ABC Radio Hobart.
The birds usually call Macquarie Island, about 1,500 kilometres from Tasmania, home.
"Given the remote location of the second bird, there may be a number of birds that come ashore over the years which are not seen or reported," Dr McInnes said.
She said "vagrant" juvenile penguins were known to come ashore away from their colonies from time to time.
No comments:
Post a Comment