Background: 一只帝企鹅在南极迷路了，结果飘游数千英里来到新西兰的海滩上。 成为40多年来，第一只出现在这里的企鹅。

Misdirected penguins are the stuff of fiction; the animated musical Happy Feet and the Ukrainian satire Death and the Penguin both feature large aquatic birds who've strayed far from home.

And a woman out walking her dog on New Zealand's North Island said she couldn't believe her eyes when she saw what she described as a "glistening white thing" standing on the beach.

It turned out to be a juvenile emperor penguin, about a metre tall, and 3,000 kilometres from its base in Antarctica after taking a wrong turn.

No such bird has made that journey for more than 40 years. Conservationists are baffled and concerned. One penguin expert was quoted as saying that although the bird was healthy, it had been eating wet sand, having mistaken it for snow.

The New Zealand winter is too warm for an emperor penguin, and it's thought it'll soon need to find its way back south if it's to survive.