This is the story of a climate refugee of a rather special kind. This emperor penguin, approximately one meter high, emerged, alone and hungry, from the waves of the Indian Ocean, under the stunned eyes of the surfers who were putting up their boards. Nothing like the much smaller penguins that live on the Australian coast, you can't go wrong. It has indeed traveled more than 3,400 kilometers, due north, to come from its natural environment, the Antarctic ice floe.
On the beach, surfers say that he cleaned himself up while watching passers-by look at him, not afraid at all. He tried to slide on his belly… and it was probably when he found himself with his beak planted in the sand that he realized that he had swum a little further than usual.
How and why can an emperor penguin travel such distances? This is where it gets a little less funny. According to experts cited in the press, emperor penguins are victims of the accelerated melting of the South Pole ice pack in recent years. The colonies are dwindling, they are having great difficulty reproducing, and the young penguins, who are naturally exploratory, tend to go ever further to find food.
In this case, Gus, as this is the nickname given to him in Australia, certainly drifted in search of fish in a sea current which took him too far north. Never before has an emperor penguin been reported at such a northern latitude.
For the moment, the team at an Australian wild animal shelter is taking great care of him while he fills up: he was missing around 20 kilos, half his body weight, at the end of his journey. Then, the most likely thing is that Gus will never see the icy shores of Antarctica again: he would risk bringing back human germs that are dangerous for his fellow humans.
At the rate things are going, emperor penguins are considered to be threatened with extinction by the year 2100. So, a proposal: let's name Gus climate ambassador, and send him to Baku, to COP29. He will perhaps be able to better convince our leaders of the urgency of truly taking action against climate change.
