Vets have successfully attached a tracking device to the wayward Emperor Penguin, Happy Feet, in Wellington.
The bird is being prepared for his release into the wild from the animal hospital at Wellington zoo.
In front of several hundred onlookers the emperor penguin was anaesthetised on Sunday and the tracking device was fitted above his tail with superglue.
The device, which is about half the size of a cellphone, will fall off the bird when he moults in the summertime.
On Monday, the penguin will be loaded in a specially made crate and put onto the NIWA research vessel Tangaroa.
He will be released in the Southern Ocean about four days into the voyage.
