Victorians urged to look for young penguins washed up after wild weather

Victorians are being urged to keep an eye out for exhausted young penguins which have been washed ashore after encountering rough seas.

Animalia Wildlife Shelter and Rescue director, Michelle Thomas, says the animals are too young to know how to cope with stormy seas.

“We’ve had bodies of penguins wash up on the shores all around the bay,” she told Stephen Quartermain and Emily Power, filling in for Ross and Russel.

“They will have just left the nest and they’re not taught to fish by their parents, just one day mum and dad don’t come back.

“Then they get themselves out to sea and they’ve got to figure it out by themselves, and they do that by observation.

“In tumultuous seas they can’t see what to do.”

Anyone who spots a penguin washed up on the beach is urged to wrap the bird in a towel, put it in a cardboard box, and call a local wildlife rescue organisation.

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