"Happy Feet," the wayward emperor penguin, stands at the top of a makeshift water slide before he is released into the Southern Ocean, south of New Zealand, from the NIWA research vessel Tangaroa Sunday, Sept. 4, 2011. "Happy Feet" was back home Sunday in Antarctic waters more than two months after he came ashore on a beach nearly 2,000 miles (3,000 kilometers) from home and became an instant celebrity.
We also couldn’t get enough of Happy Feet and his penguin-out-of-water story. Happy Feet became an overnight sensation (and boost to zoo tourism) when he wound up on a beach in New Zealand in June, after apparently making his way back from Antarctica. After being nursed back to health, he was released back into the wild, hopefully to reunite with his tuxedoed brethren. But a tracking device attached to Happy Feet suddenly stopped working in September, leading some to fear he had been eaten. We can only hold out hope that Happy Feet is still kicking in 2012.