Little Penguin survives three times life expectancy of its average species

A little penguin from an Australian colony which has survived three times the life expectancy of its average species has survived its latest battle.

Pauley, which comes from a closely monitored colony on Phillip Island, off the southern state of Victoria, was recently found undernourished and distressed on a mainland beach.

It was taken to a nearby animal shelter where it was discovered to have a badly broken beak, which meant it hadn't been able to catch enough fresh fish in the ocean to survive.

As it got weaker, it became slower, making it even harder to catch any fish at all.

Staff at the shelter were amazed to discover an identity tag attached to one of its wings by wildlife authorities in December 1993, making it at least more than 21 years old.

The average age of little penguins is seven years old.

Michelle Thomas from the Animalia shelter said it was unusual for a penguin of this type to have survived so long.

"He must just be a very, very smart penguin because he should by all means have been in the stomach of a shark or a seal by this time," she said.

Her colleague Anna Honeybee told Xinhua on Thursday that Pauley was brought to them in early December.

It was slowly fattened up until Pauley was happy devouring seven large sardines a day to get back to a healthy weight of one kilogram from 750 grams when it arrived.

"We repaired his beak in an operation on Tuesday," she said.

"The beak had roughly healed, but that was filed back to make it smooth again, and then the broken part was wired together."

"That way it will take four to five weeks to properly heal from now, then we'll release him back into the wild. He'll be glad to see the back of us by then."

"He'll have no problem adapting back into the wild he's 21, so he knows all about it and what he has to do." Endi