A King penguin has waddled onto a Buffels Bay beach in Cape Point, surprising visitors and park rangers.

The penguin, second in size to the Emperor penguin, arrived at the beach in the morning and has been wondering around since.

SANPark officials said in a tweet that the arrival has gained a lot of interest from birders so they will be keeping rangers on site for crowd control.

“We urge the public to keep their distance from the penguin as his activity will be monitored over the next few days,” they said.

SANCCOB have already assessed the surprise visitor and determined that there were no medical concerns, leaving him to go about his business.

While South Africa is known for its penguin populations, King penguins are not endemic to this region. Rather, they are found on sub-Antarctic islands. This means that this visitor has swam roughly between 2000 and 6000 km to get here.

It is not entirely unheard of for them to occasionally swim in our waters and arrive on our shores. In 2017, a King Penguin who was in arrested moult and injured washed up in Hout Bay.

Image: SANParks/Twitter