By Cristina Merrill: Subscribe to Cristina's RSS feed
November 22, 2011 10:34 PM EST
Several of the Blue Penguins rescued from an oil spill that occurred in October off of the coast of the New Zealand island of Tauranga have been returned to the wild.
Forty-nine penguins were released at a beach, The Associated Press reported.
Most of them immediately ran toward the water, while a few lingered on the shore for a bit.
The oil spill killed more than 2,000 birds, and the penguins released were part of the more than 300 Blue Penguins affected by the disaster, according to The AP.
Skeinz, a yarn store in New Zealand, was inundated with Blue Penguin-sized sweaters after mentioning that rescuers needed the knits to keep the injured birds warm.
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"It's wonderful to see the first penguins all cleaned up & heading home!" the yarn store wrote on its blog.
Blue Penguins, also known as Little Penguins, are native to New Zealand and Australia.
Here is a video from Sky News showing the release of the wobbly creatures.
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