Animal rescue can be a thankless job. Few people do it but when they do, they do it with all their hearts.
This blue penguin was rescued from being entangled by plastic netting.
It looks like the blue penguin developed a connection with his caretakers. He walked a couple of feet away prior to turning back to the person that took care of him.
He then looked back at the ocean and took a few more steps toward it. However before he could reach the waves, he took another look back at his caretaker.
He was never going to see her again. But when he felt the sea water touch his feet, he remembered it was where he belonged. And he ran into the ocean.
The waves may seem to stop him however he didn’t care. He pushed himself past the waves and swam to his home.
Their beaks are black and their eye color differs from silver to blue, grey, or hazel.
The bottoms of the flippers, torso, chin, and throat are white but can come to be gray or brown.
Blue penguins are both diurnal and nocturnal. They are extremely noisy and have their own individual phone call.
Their species is verging on becoming endangered because of natural killers and industrial fishing. They’re likewise the ones who suffer one of the most from oil spills.
It’s a good thing this little blue penguin was rescued at that time. He probably had a family who depended on him to feed them.
They’re not migratory birds and they tend to stay close to their colony. So when one is missing, the colony is most likely in an uproar.
Founded by Wildlife Biologist Sabrina Luecht in 2017, Kaikoura Wildlife Rescue has assisted rehabilitate thousands of birds, especially seabirds like blue penguins, yellow-eyed penguins, shags, gulls, petrels, and shearwaters.
She claimed that the hardest part about wild animals rehabilitation is the injuries and deaths the animals and the caretakers have to deal with.
” Lots of patients arrive in rehab due to human-induced injuries, rather than natural injuries,” Sabrina said. “You do your very best for every patient, but some can not be saved in spite of treatment and many hours, which is always saddening. The best aspects of wildlife rehabilitation are saving native birds … Releasing birds back right into the wild makes it all worthwhile.”