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Subscribe to RSSA one-year-old penguin from Tokyo Sea Life Park made his escape earlier this week sparking a city-wide search after squeezing through a fence. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
Sometimes regular meals and the companionship of scores of other penguins just aren't enough. Penguin Number 337 seems to have decided something was missing from life at a Tokyo aquarium and took off.
The one-year-old Humboldt penguin scaled a rock wall and squeezed through a fence during a daring bid for freedom some time in the past week, sparking a penguin hunt that included a city-wide call for information on the tubby fugitive.
Tokyo Sea Life Park, on the shores of Tokyo Bay, was alerted to the escape of the bird, known only by its number, after receiving a photograph on Sunday that supposedly showed it swimming in the bay.
'Yearning for adventure'
Kazuhiro Sakamoto, the park's deputy director, thinks it may have been a case of happy feet.
"The penguin hatched last year on January 27, so it is still a very young penguin," Sakamoto said.
"We think that because of its young age, it might have escaped due to its curiosity and yearning for adventure."
The bird, still too young for keepers to determine whether it was male or female, shared life at a rocky outdoor enclosure with a view of the sea with 135 other Humboldts and a number of penguins of other breeds. Humboldts grow to 22-28 inches long and can weigh up to 13 pounds.
Animal Tracks: Penguin on the loose
But getting out would have been far from simple.
"There's a man-made rock wall that varies between 4 to 13 feet high. After somehow climbing over it and getting out, it appears the penguin managed to squeeze through a gap in the outer fence," Sakamoto said.
Worries over dirty sea water
Worried that the penguin might have strayed out to sea, keepers issued a Tokyo-wide call for tips on the feathered fugitive and are making regular patrols along the shoreline in front of the aquarium, staring out to sea with binoculars.
Visitors said they were worried about the bird. The area around the aquarium, which sits where the Edo River empties into the bay, consists of high-rise apartment buildings and concrete, with a highway looping overhead.
"The sea water around here is very dirty, so unless the penguin is returned to safety quickly it may die," said Hiroki Kasai, a university student.
Others felt it may have gone in search of more salubrious living quarters, noting that the penguin enclosure was much more cramped than its natural habitat.
Sakamoto said the waters of the bay were full of fish so the penguin was unlikely to starve -- but that it was also unlikely to head for Peru or Chile, the ancestral home of Humboldts.
"It's a type of penguin that tends to stay close to shore, but I also think it would not be able to cross all of that wide ocean."
The Tokyo Aquarium is searching for a penguin known as No. 337 after the bird scaled a rock wall and escaped. TODAY.com's Dara Brown reports.
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Leave a Comment:
Way to go, 337!
"Agent 337, run North, keep running and dont look back...do what the PIA (penguin intelligence agency) trained you to do....your work has been accomplished, you will need to meet up with agent 99 in Russia for the next mission..."
Funny!
There's good news and bad news. The good news is Penguin 337 is in Japan, so there will probably be plenty of fish on his escape route. The bad news is he is wearing a tuxedo, can't fly and can barely walk one MPH.
#337........lamster
Are they sure that Jim Carey didn't kidnap said Penguin ?
You guys nearly cost me a new computer keyboard to spitted-out coffee...
Good for him. Now there is an APB for Penguin Number 337. He will soon be on Tokyo's Ten Most Wanted. The little rascal just wanted to go home. What is the penalty for harboring a penguin?
"We want information... information... information."
"Who are you?"
"The new number two."
"Who is number one?"
"You are number 337."
"I am not a number, I am a free man! ..er...I mean penguin!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA."
Sorry...Just a little play on "The Prisoner" there. Couldn't resist. ;->
BTW, how long do I have to keep typing in that GD anti spam filter code?!?! Jeezz!
I want to know if the penguin destroyed Tokyo.
"We think that because of its young age, it might have escaped due to its curiosity and yearning for adventure."
Yearning for freedom is more like it. You rock 337 run as fast as you can.
Anyone else picturing this little guy in the back of a crowded Japanese bar shouting for the band to play "FREEE BIRD"?
APB on prisoner 337...
Give him/ her a damn name and it may feel more at home.
Funny stuff above;-)
Visions of the Penguins of Madagascar taking control of a mega tanker. This little fellow is my hero. I loved the free bird above. Great stuff man. He should remain with his prisoner name 337 as a reminder of what prison is and what freedom tastes like. This should be a movie.
Penguins travel very far for their food and their honey. This little guy is on a honey mission.
If a you love a penguin, set him free, and if he returns, he is truly yours. If not, then maybe a shark ate him.
That's so horrible, and yet LOL.
Penguins are a nice shark snack. A good appetizer before a seal entree.
I totally agree. I won't go to zoos or acquariums because I think they are prisons for animals. ANimals need to be in their own environment, not penned up so they can give pleasure to people. Put yourself in their place.
In the aquarium there was very little chance of being someone's dinner. In the wild he faces that threat every minute of every day. Of course, that is merely to give one shark fleeting pleasure rather than many people lasting pleasure. Put yourself in their place.
By the way, I do not believe there has yet been a study done to determine whether or not penguins actually have a "sense of adventure."
guanevere: Not only that, but... let's rub a little bit of salt in the wound by putting their enclosure in view of the sea.
And if he doesn't return -- flock it!
Eeewww, no thanks.
guanevere, I am in their position 10 hours a day as I sit in my cubicle at work!! 337 probably does (or did) much less for his food and lodging lol
wwwww how does it feel to be an economic slave... You work for your food to survive today only to return to the grind for your next meal. I think we are missing the point of life. Work to live and not live to work. Climb that wall to freedom... Like I said that little penguin is so my hero....
I read the headline and the Mission Impossible started playing in my head.
LOL!
For me, it was the whistle tune from the Steve McQueen movie "The Great Escape"
And I could picture 337 bouncing a tennis ball off the aquarium wall.
for me it was Penguins of Madagascar (I have young child & watch alot of childrens TV). BUT seriously folks it escaped teh habitat then teh zoo itself? What were the Keystone cops in charge of security?
I heard it blended in with a group of nuns who were touring the zoo and simply walked out with them, totally unnoticed.
A "nun" joke. Great. I'm sure you're unnoticed when you walk out too.
@ Randolph Vance - ahahahaa....The Cooler King is a great new name for 337!
Good commando skills skipper.
BREAKING NEWS
This just in: A 250' tall radioactive penguin has just attacked Tokyo.
Excellent!!!
Where's Godzilla when he's needed? He must have been returned to a normal lizard when Fukushima occured...damn
I guess you could say it "Flew the Coop"? Wait a minute, I thought that Penguins couldn't........ HEY!
I'm just a number here....adios amigos!
Yeah, I mean poor thing, it doesn't even have a name! But I guess that's because they didn't know it's gender yet. A nice gender neutral name might've made it stay though!
The name "Penguin-thing" comes to mind.
For SNL fans it could have been simply Pat!
I've decided to name little brave #337, Hilts 'The Cooler King'. Hilts 'The Cooler King' was Steve McQueen's character's name in The Great Escape.
Yeah Hilts.
Call him James Bond .... he's wearing a tuxedo.
"Run Bambi run"!
Is the zookeeper named Stanley Livingston? Did the article say that a walrus broke out too? I think the zoo should re-name the penguin Tennessee Tuxedo.
Run Forest Run!!!!!
Jonathan Livingston Penguin.
Sad part of this story is that the water around the zoo is considered dangerous enough to kill the penguin, but people live near it!!!!!
The saddest part for me is little #337 and his other fellow no name friends are living in an aquarium instead of their natural habitat.
Good news, Javondure, he may not be! You see, he was last seen in the bay, in the wild. He has not been seen again since the tiger shark saw him. Yeah, I would rather live in an enclosed community with my own kind than amongst the predatores.
Yeah, but the penguins are so much cuter
Papillon the Penguin!
Yeah!
Probably just trying to escape the radiation from Fukushima.
A couple of months in the hole will straighten out Penguin Number 337.
Don't count on it, 337 was already in the hole, along with the other penguins!
Sounds like a smart Penguin. He might be disguising himself as a duck..with a mustache. GO 337!!!
Godzilla is coming. (Lips not moving with the words)
Contact Agent P (Perry the Platypus), he can help.
Exactly what I was thinking! Uff da!, My grandchildren have me watching too much Phineas and Ferb!
Gonna cruise out of this city
Head down to the sea
Gonna shout out at the ocean
Hey it's me
And I feel like a number
Bon voyage.
Name him!!! He is not a number. I would escape too if they gave me a number instead of name.
He is not even a he. It isn't old enough to know what sex it is. And do you really think that an animal knows the difference between a 'name' and a 'number'?
Penguin Number 337 recent quote: "Badges, badges, I don't need no stinking badges! Adios sensei."
Happy feet escaped!
He's Penguin, James Penguin!
"I am not a number...I am a free penguin!"