that wayward penguin in new zealand. here s david wright. reporter: new zealand s favorite little penguin is starting to bounce back. after two operations, this is the chilly recovery room. his demeanor is good. yesterday he actually punched me in the stomach with his flipper. reporter: the emperor penguin, nicknamed happy feet, washed up on a new zealand beach a week ago. the lost and clearly hungry little guy promptly ate a lot of wet sand, thinking it was snow. that s when the wellington zoo stepped in, mounting an unusual rescue. we will try to save him. but there s no guarantees. he s pretty sick and it s quite serious eating that much sand. reporter: they prepped the little guy for surgery and even held its foot throughout the ordeal. with half of new zealand watching through the plate glass window and it s kind of gross but fascinating. reporter: a gastroenterologist went to work. i don t normally have tv cameras and reporters in the room when i m doing an endo
here s david wright. reporter: new zealand s favorite little penguin is starting to bounce back. after two operations, this is the chilly recovery room. his demeanor is good. yesterday he actually punched me in the stomach with his flipper. reporter: the emperor penguin, nicknamed happy feet, washed up on a new zealand beach a week ago. the lost and clearly hungry little guy promptly ate a lot of wet sand, thinking it was snow. that s when the wellington zoo stepped in, mounting an unusual rescue. we will try to save him. but there s no guarantees. he s pretty sick and it s quite serious eating that much sand. reporter: they prepped the little guy for surgery and even held its foot throughout the ordeal. with half of new zealand watching through the plate glass window and it s kind of gross but fascinating. reporter: a gastroenterologist went to work. i don t normally have tv cameras and reporters in the room when i m doing an endoscopy. i m not a penguin expert. re
crow. this one kept going north and a very long way from its usual range. shepard: he says the penguin has been eating wet sand. seems it thought it might be snow that would obviously melt in its mouth. silly penguin. i just want to rescue it. poor little thing. shepard: conservationists say they have no plans to ship it back home. instead, they will let nature take its course and hope the bird finds its own way. for now the penguin doesn t seem too inclined to leave the beaches of new zealand for. this but one child wondered whether the penguin mighting getting lonely. who do you think he might be missing? his friends. yeah. fortunately the penguins has plenty of people to keep it company until it decides it s time to swim back to the south. shepard: i m shepard smith. this is the fox report. it s the bottom of the hour, time for the top of the news. the white house says president obama will speak to the nation tomorrow night about 20 minutes later than we are at this