Wayward Penguin Better After Surgery

New Zealand's favorite penguin visitor is more lively and eating fish after undergoing endoscopic surgery today to remove some of the beach sand and twigs it swallowed, apparently mistaking it for snow. Full recovery for the young emperor penguin—nicknamed Happy Feet—may take months, and officials are still uncertain about how it might return home to the Antarctic, about 2,000 miles away.

Happy Feet is being housed in a room at the Wellington Zoo chilled to about 46 degrees Fahrenheit, and has a bed of ice on which it can sleep. The penguin may be older than experts first thought—perhaps up to 2 1/2 years old rather than the initial estimate of 10 months. Experts still don't know whether it's male or female, although DNA samples should soon provide an answer. (More New Zealand stories.)