By James Murray / NZN
It’s no longer possible to keep track of Happy Feet as “his transmitter has stopped transmitting”.
New Zealand’s favourite lost penguin was being tracked using a GPS device paid for by Gareth Morgan and a company called Sirtrack.
Happy Feet’s progress was being monitored on Mr Morgan’s site – ourfarsouth.org.
He was released into the ocean after making a full recovery from illness at Wellington Zoo and was let into the ocean from
a fishing boat on September 4, with the tracker attached.
Zoo staff had hoped it would stay on until he moulted next
year.
However, an update on the site today speculates as to why the tracker is no longer sending back a signal.
The website says the most likely scenario is the transmitter
has fallen off.
The transmitter may start working again and it would be a
couple of days before it would be known for sure.
"But if we don't get further readings then we'll have
to hope for the best and be thankful that we've had such a wonderful cause to
raise people's awareness of the Far South," the website says.
"This could be due to a number of reasons, but it may not be due to interference from the solar flares as previously speculated. There are a number of reasons this may have happened - transmitter falling off, transmitter damage, technical failure etc. Our view is the most likely scenario is the transmitter has fallen off. After all it was only glued on and would have had to survive extreme conditions. It will be at least a couple of days before we know for sure that the transmitter is no longer working. Hopefully we'll be pleasantly surprised. But if we don't get further readings then we'll have to hope for the best and be thankful that we've had such a wonderful cause to raise peoples' awareness of the Far South."
The penguin became an international celebrity after he
washed up on a beach north of Wellington
in June.
He was taken to Wellington Zoo where he had several
procedures to remove sand and sticks from his stomach.
Experts believe he ate it thinking it was snow to keep him
cool.
You can watch all our Happy Feet video here.
3 News / NZN