The Galleon - Portsmouth's Official Student Newspaper

Humans were not the only ones to enjoy the sun last week. Day trippers on Southsea seafront were amazed to see what appeared to be a lost penguin frolicking in the shallows.

The Sun newspaper published grainy footage of a black and white seabird diving in and out of the waves, as the south coast enjoyed record October temperatures.

Joanne Gordon, 35, of Aldershot, who shot the footage, stated she couldn’t believe it when she saw it swimming around six feet away from her.

Surprised onlookers claimed that the bird had been waddling around the harbour earlier.

The Sun said that, “It could be a lost jackass penguin, whose natural habitat is 6,000 miles away in South Africa”.

Others are more sceptical, with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds claiming the creature was most likely a Guillemot a member of the auk family, commonly found along the UK coastline.

The incident is the latest in a series of unlikely sightings of unusual visitors off the south coast, including a ‘crocodile’ sighting last year which turned out to be a piece of driftwood.