Fears are growing for the welfare of Toga, a three-month old baby jackass penguin, who was stolen from Amazon World zoo, on the Isle of Wight, on Saturday night.

Keepers warned tonight that unless Toga was returned within the next two days he was unlikely to survive.

The 1ft-tall bird still has the brown and white appearance of a baby, and is not old enough to leave its parents. He was being fed by his mother on a special diet of regurgitated fish, and is likely now to be undernourished.

Karen Bright, manager at Amazon World, said that Toga would probably die of malnutrition if not urgently returned.

"Toga is very, very vulnerable. The penguin is still being fed by his parents and we don’t believe it could survive more than five days," she told The Associated Press news agency.

"The bird has already been missing for around three days and is likely to be severely dehydrated. If he isn’t returned before Thursday he is likely to become so ill that even intensive care treatment won’t save him."

Toga is too young to have yet had a gender confirmed, but along with tradition, is referred to as a male, she added.

Ms Bright said there was no sign of forced entry to the pen where the zoo's penguin colony lives, but said a thief would have been able to climb into the compound and carry Toga away.

"We can’t understand what may have been going through the thief’s head, but we are worried someone decided a penguin would make the perfect Christmas gift," she added. "There has been a lot of attention because of the film March of the Penguins. Perhaps someone saw the film and thought their wife or girlfriend would be thrilled to have one as a present."

The French movie was a box-office hit and has been credited with drawing tourists to penguin spotting sites across the world.

A police spokeswoman reinforced the appeals for Toga's safe return. She said: "He will not feed from a human and will be very stressed. He is not as cuddly as he looks and will bite when frightened. Toga is very vocal and makes a noise like a donkey braying, hence the name jackass penguin."

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