An Emperor penguin found in New Zealand will be released into the ocean when fully fit so it can swim the 3,000 kilometres (1,900 miles) home to Antarctica, wildlife experts said Wednesday.

The penguin, nicknamed "Happy Feet", was found wandering on a beach near Wellington last week and was taken to the city's zoo when it became sick after eating sand and sticks.

After three rounds of surgery, including one performed by a top New Zealand surgeon, the zoo said Wednesday that its condition had stabilised and attention had turned to what would become of the unusual visitor.

A specially-formed "penguin advisory group", comprising experts from the zoo, Department of Conservation (DOC), Wellington's Massey University and the national museum Te Papa met Wednesday to decide its fate.

"The group has agreed the preferred option for the Emperor penguin is to release it in the Southern Ocean, southeast of New Zealand," DOC spokesman Peter Simpson said.

"This is the northern edge of the known range of juvenile Emperor penguins."

Simpson said other options canvassed included keeping the penguin in captivity, which was discounted due a lack of suitable facilities, and taking it back to Antarctica.

"The reason for not returning the penguin directly to Antarctica is that Emperor penguins of this age are usually found north of Antarctica on pack ice and in the open ocean," he said.

However, Wellington Zoo's veterinary manager Lisa Argilla said earlier this week that it could be months before the penguin was healthy enough for release because it was underweight following its long swim north and intestinal trauma.

In the meantime, the zoo said it would live in an air conditioned room carpeted with crushed ice to cool it in the relative warmth of New Zealand, where the mercury currently sits around 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit).

It is thought the bird, only the second Emperor penguin ever recorded in New Zealand fell ill on the beach after mistaking sand for snow and eating it in a bid to lower its temperature, clogging its gut.

The Emperor penguin is the largest species of the distinctive waddling creature and can grow up to 1.15 metres (3ft 9in) tall.

The reason for Happy Feet's appearance in New Zealand remains a mystery, although experts say Emperor penguins take to the open sea during the Antarctic summer and this one may have simply wandered further than most.

earlier related report
Hundreds of new species found in Philippines
Manila (AFP) June 29, 2011 - Lobsters without shells and a small shark that bulks up with water to scare off predators are among hundreds of potential new species found in the Philippines, according to a US-led biodiversity survey.

The California Academy of Sciences said it discovered more than 300 previously unknown animals and plants during a recent 42-day marine and land survey of the vast but ecologically threatened Southeast Asian archipelago.

"The Philippines is one of the hottest of the hot spots for diverse and threatened life on Earth," expedition leader Terrence Gosliner said in statement on the academy's website posted this week.

"Despite this designation, however, the biodiversity here is still relatively unknown, and we found new species during nearly every dive and hike as we surveyed the country's reefs, rainforests, and the ocean floor."

Their notable finds included a deep-sea shark that swells its size by filling its stomach with water to scare off other predators, and a starfish that eats only driftwood.

They also found three new lobster relatives, a crab with pincers lined with needle-like teeth, and a worm-like pipefish hiding among soft-coral colonies.

Many of these avoided previous detection because they were too small, including goblin spiders, sea slugs and barnacles, the statement said.

Others existed in places rarely, if ever, visited by humans, such as a snake eel from the ocean floor and a primitive spikemoss from the dangerously steep upper slopes of the 1,976-metre (6,483-foot) Mount Isarog.

The statement was an update of the group's announcement in Manila on June 8 immediately after finishing the survey, when it said it had found about 75 potential new species including a cicada that made a "laughing" call.

No reason was given this week for the sharp jump in potential species found.

But the group said on June 8 that it was still studying the collected samples, comparing them with existing literature.

It said it would have a definite number of confirmed newly discovered species "over the coming months", as scientists completed DNA studies.

The finds add weight to the idea that Philippine waters likely house more species than any other marine environment on earth, the academy statement said.

It urged Philippine conservators to set up or expand marine protected areas and curb plastic rubbish that litters the ocean floor.

It said many of the current supposedly protected ecosystems were mere "paper parks" that lacked any means to stop logging and hunting.

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