North and South are the two Little Penguins that you see in these pictures. They were released last week back into the wild following a stay at Sydney's Taronga Zoo wildlife hospital.



As you can understand by the pictures one of the two, North, enjoyed the stay very much as he was very reluctant to leave her carer, veterinarian Amy Twentyman, as she pushed him towards water



The two penguins had been rescued from beaches nearby Sydney. North had been found trapped in seaweed at Terrigal, north of Sydney on Christmas day, while South was found two months later looking unwell on Cronulla beach south of the city (so this explains their nicknames).



It was fairly common to rescue penguins at this time of year, when they moult their feathers because this is a very delicate moment: they are not waterproof until they grew a new coat of feathers so they can't go in the water at that time and are very easy preys for predators like foxes.



Little Penguins are known with many other names: Fairy Penguins because of their tiny size, Little Blue Penguins, or just Blue Penguins, owing to their indigo-blue plumage, and they are called Kororā in Māori. Their habitat is the souyh coast of Australia and New Zealand but they have been sighted even in Namibia and Chile.



They are the smallest species of penguin being just 43 cm (16 in) tall!



In the end North overcame is reluctance and followed his friend South in the sea.