Pen-chan is a 6-year-old Cape penguin born in captivity in Japan who had no experience with the open ocean or predators. So as AFP reports, when she escaped an event on Aug. 25 on Himaka Island, there was little hope for her survival, much less her safe return. As rescuers began an immediate search, any optimism that she might be found alive dimmed further when a massive typhoon ripped through the area, dumping buckets of rain. And yet, on Sunday, Pen-chan was spotted very much alive—and very much 30 miles away from where she gave her handlers the slip.
"I thought she would look exhausted, but she was swimming as usual," handler Ryosuke Imai said after Pen-chan was rescued. "It was beyond my surprise ... It's a miracle." Imai says Pen-chan "lost a little weight" but speculates that she was doing an adequate job of catching crabs and fish to carry her through her two-week absence. "I'm surprised at the penguin's physical ability and adaptability," he tells Kyodo News. But "we're relieved that she's been found." (More penguins stories.)
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