WELLINGTON, New Zealand, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- Contact has been lost with the celebrity penguin dubbed "Happy Feet" two weeks after his release into the Southern Ocean, New Zealand wildlife officials said.
The young emperor penguin, which wandered 2,000 miles from Antarctica to New Zealand two months ago and was found disoriented on a beach, was released Sept. 4 after recuperating in Wellington.
A transmitter was glued on Happy Feet before his release but contact was lost with the penguin Friday, TVNZ reported.
Experts said the transmitter likely had fallen off.
"To be uninvasive, we only glued it on so that it would fall off," Kevin Lay of Sirtrack, the maker of the transmitter, said.
"We hoped it would stay on for five or six months but it appears in this case it's only stayed on for two weeks."
