Penguins Fatso and Grumpy made a quick dash for freedom at Stingray Bay on Thursday after being nursed back to health by wildlife carers.
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The pair were were found sick and injured during the past two months by members of the public, and were two of more than a dozen that Mosswood Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation's Tracey Wilson has cared for so far this year.
Ms Wilson said one of the penguins was found at Portland and was too thin to survive the annual moulting process.
The other one was sick when he was found near Peterborough. "We don't really know why," Ms Wilson said.
He was given a course of antibiotics and, by the time he recovered he'd started moulting, so they had to keep him until he'd finished.
"They look horrible when they're moulting and they're not waterproof so they come on land and in order to stay on land for 14 to 17 days, they have to get really fat. They've got to double their weight," she said.
"They can't hunt while they're moulting.
"Every season's different, but you get penguins that are simply not fat enough to make it through moulting."
She said they often look after fledglings as well which have about an 85 per cent mortality rate.
Ms Wilson said they'd had a lot of penguins to care for from Warrnambool this year, as many as 15.
Last year they only had to care for two during the whole year.
Ms Wilson has been caring for penguins for 12 years and over the years has seen the numbers of sick and injured penguins fluctuate.
"We've had season before where we've had 24 come in in a single weekend. But they call that a wreck.
"When you have a penguin wreck most of them die because they come in and it's normally bad weather and... then you've got all these starving ones that aren't going to make it."
Ms Wilson said that had already released four other sick or injured penguins this year which were found Stingray Bay, Surfside 1 and Thunder Point.
As for Fatso and Grumpy, who knows where they'll end up. While they were released right next to Middle Island, penguins are known to travel long distances fishing, Ms Wilson said.
Micro-chipping data found that Phillip Island penguins would often turn up in Warrnambool, she said.
Mosswood specialises in looking after sick, injured and orphaned koalas as well as seabirds.
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