On the Loose

Tokyo Searches for Escaped Penguin

Young bird seen bathing in river.

Tokyo residents should be on the lookout for a 1-year-old penguin today. The bird was recently seen swimming in a river mouth in the capital after apparently scaling an aquarium wall and escaping. “We first noticed the penguin might have fled when the director of a neighboring zoo emailed us Sunday with a photo,” said an aquarium official, referring to the photo of the swimming penguin. He said officials were unable to capture it because it swam “at a tremendous speed.” The penguin—a Humboldt—is a long way from home, being native to the Pacific coast of South America and the offshore islands of Chile and Peru. It’s unclear how the little guy escaped.