Home News ‘Happy feet’ penguin returns to Antarctica

‘Happy feet’ penguin returns to Antarctica

By AAP with AG Staff. • 29 August 2011

Happy Feet in a special crate before making the four-day journey to the Southern Ocean east of Campbell Island. (Credit: AFP).

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A lost penguin is getting a lift home to Antarctica on a New Zealand research vessel.

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Before species go extinct, their populations often shrink and become isolated. Healthy populations tend to have a large gene pool with many genetic variants circulating. But the path to extinction erodes genetic diversity, because a species’ gene pool shrinks as the population declines. Losing genetic diversity limits the ability of populations to adapt to threats such as disease and climate change.