Rescuers are trying to rehabilitate an emperor penguin that came ashore some 2,000 miles from its natural habitat, and what comes next is "still being worked through."

An emperor penguin found malnourished far from its Antarctic home on the Australian south coast is being cared for by a wildlife expert, a government department said Monday.

An emperor penguin is in recovery after swimming from Antarctica to Australia — a journey of over 2,000 miles. The bird was discovered on a tourist beach on the country's southwest coast on Nov. 1, according to a government statement obtained by the Associated Press.

A lone emperor penguin was found malnourished on a popular beach after making the shocking 2,200 mile swim from Antarctica to Australia.

"There was this big bird in the water, and we thought it was another sea bird, but then it kept coming closer to the shore–and it was way too big–and it just stood up and waddled right over to us," Aaron Fowler,

An emperor penguin traveled over 2,000 miles from its Antarctic home, appearing on the shores of Ocean Beach in Denmark, a town in Western Australia. This rare sighting, made on November 1, might mark the first recorded visit of an emperor penguin on the Australian continent.