Happy Feet, The Lost Penguin, Is Headed Home

Two months after he showed up 2,000 miles from home, Happy Feet the three-year-old Emperor Penguin is on a ship that will give him a big head start on his way from New Zealand to Antarctica.

"Today, he was transferred to a National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research vessel, the Tangaroa, which was due to sail tonight to the Campbell Islands, 700km south of New Zealand," the New Zealand Herald reports.

That means Happy Feet is getting about a 430-mile lift.

Professor John Cockrem, a penguin expert from Massey University, previously told the Herald that Happy Feet will be released in an area where currents should help steer him the rest of the way. He's wearing a tracking device that should let researchers follow his progress. It took two months for officials at teh Wellington Zoo to get Happy Feet ready for the journey. He was pretty weak, and had been eating sand, when he was found.

There's video from the Herald here and The Associated Press has also posted this report.

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