A penguin living in a Gloucestershire park has been renamed after it was found she was actually male.
Ten-year-old king penguin ‘Maggie’, of Birdland Park and Gardens, Gloucestershire, has been renamed after making a flirty first move towards another penguin.
Male penguins often make the first move, so when zookeepers saw ‘Maggie’ move towards fellow penguin Frank, they were surprised.
They sent off one of Maggie’s feathers to be tested, which confirmed their suspicions – ‘she’ was actually male.
After ten years of being referred to as the wrong gender, the zookeepers are now happily calling him ‘Magnus’.
In other penguin-related news, last month a malnourished emperor penguin has been discovered thousands of miles away from its home in Antarctica, baffling wildlife experts.
The adult male, nicknamed Gus, was found on November 1 on a popular beach in the town of Denmark, south-west Australia, roughly 2,200 miles north of the icy waters off the Antarctic coast where he hails from.
The state of Western Australia’s Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions said the penguin species has never been reported in Australia before.
University of Western Australia research fellow Belinda Cannell said some had reached New Zealand, but she has ‘no idea’ why the penguin ended up in Denmark.
The penguin is 3.2 feet tall and weighed 51 pounds when he was discovered. A healthy male emperor penguin can weigh more than 100 pounds.
And earlier this year, four new colonies of emperor penguins were found thanks to their telltale calling card – massive smears of poop across the glistening ice.
Scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) discovered the previously unknown breeding sites using satellites, which captured the big brown patches.
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