Ecology
The hunt for a penguin that escaped from the zoo began a couple of days ago in Tokyo. The fugitive was last seen swimming in the river of the Japanese capital.
Humboldt, a one-year-old penguin, was discovered swimming at the mouth of the Old Edogawa River, which flows towards Tokyo Bay. Zoo workers reported that the agile bird, 60 centimeters tall, managed to jump over a stone wall, twice as tall as itself, and escape.
The disappearance of the penguin was not immediately noticed, the director of a nearby zoo spoke about the fugitive. It is not yet clear how the bird managed to escape from the enclosure, which contained 134 more Humboldt penguins.
“Of course, penguins can't fly, but they can show unusual abilities in the wild if they're scared. Maybe the penguin jumped over the wall scared of something,” said Takashi Sugino, a zoo employee.
Zoo staff combed through the areas where the penguin was last seen in hopes of finding and catching him. “It was difficult to catch the penguin while he was swimming, as he swims at a very high speed,” Sugino said. “We hope to catch him when he goes ashore to sleep.”