A LONELY penguin is looking for love – and is using a dating website to find a suitable mate.

The search for a partner for Weymouth Sea Life Centre resident Spruce has found a suitable outlet in the singles dating service Plenty of Fish.

On his profile Spruce is described as a "single penguin looking for chicks".

It is hoped the page will be seen by other penguin carers from around the world, although any potential female partner will have to be prepared to move to Weymouth to be with Spruce.

The one-year-old male Humboldt penguin, is part of a colony at Sea Life, but staff say the other penguins in his group are either male or already coupled up.

Although Spruce is still quite young his keepers say he seems eager to find a partner.

After searching for potential mates at other Sea Life centres with no luck staff decided to spread their search further afield with the help of the aptly-named dating site.

Spruce's dating profile says he is a "non-smoker with an athletic body type, under 5ft", whose likes include "seafood and swimming" and his favourite bands are "Reel Big Fish and Noah and the Whale".

It states he is looking for "a partner for life who I can make some little chicks with, as I'm a family man at heart".

His carer Sarah Everett is appealing for the public to share Spruce's profile and spread the word to find him a partner.

She said: "Our team hand reared Spruce from a chick and we successfully reintroduced him into our penguin colony.

"All the adult penguins are now entering their breeding season and are busy making nests.

"It would be nice for Spruce to have another single penguin to spend his time with, rather than his keepers."

She added: "Penguins are very affectionate birds by nature and often mate for life.

"I really want to see Spruce settle down with the right girl and after searches for potential mates at other Sea Life centres proved fruitless I thought it was time to look further afield."

Spruce's search for love follows conservationists in Kenya putting the profile of Sudan, the last male white rhino, on dating site Tinder to highlight the plight of the planet’s most endangered creature.

Sarah said: "Plenty of Fish has been really useful as a means of putting information about Spruce online so I can share the link on social media and send it to other penguin carers around the world."

She said staff wouldn't normally expect a Humboldt penguin to be looking for a mate so young, but Spruce appears to be an 'early starter' so they have decided to make enquiries now.

Bloodlines and other factors will have to be investigated before the mate, if found, can be moved into the colony.

In the wild, Humboldt penguins colonise on the coasts of Chile and Peru where there are estimated to be fewer than 10,000 pairs still surviving.

Penguin colonies at aquariums like Weymouth Sea Life Park may one day provide a vital lifeline for this endangered species.

The main causes of the penguins’ decline are climate change, habitat destruction, overfishing of the fish they eat and nest destruction due to commercial guano harvesting.