A zoo on the Isle of Wight is offering a £5,000 reward for the safe return of a baby jackass penguin that was stolen on Saturday and is unlikely to survive until Christmas Day unless it is returned.

The sum has been raised thanks to contributions from local businesses and well-wishers from around the world, their hearts touched by the plight of the missing baby and his parents, which are said to be pining.

Kath Bright, who looks after Toga, the three-month-old penguin which went missing from Amazon World, said that the bird still needs to be fed by its parents and would die within days without their care.

"Toga is very, very vulnerable," said Ms Bright. "We don’t believe it could survive more than five days.

Amazon World has been overwhelmed by sympathy after the snatching of Toga late on Saturday afternoon. The zoo has now received donations and good wishes from as far afield as Russia, New Zealand, and a church in Brooklyn, New York.

The Pentecostal Uprise Church of Brooklyn sent an email to the zoo saying: "We will be praying that the baby will be returned unharmed and in good health. May the Lord Jesus watch over him no matter where the baby is and God bring him back home to his family, in this we pray."

Zoo workers experienced a glimmer of hope when they received a report that a bird was found on a beach near the Isle of Wight, but it turned out to be a native guillemot, not a penguin.

“It got all our hopes up,” said Ms Bright. “Everybody’s on a bit of a downer now, because we thought we had him back. ... Everybody’s really tired, it’s very emotional.”

Toga is about 1ft tall and brown and white and was taken from his enclosure at the zoo in Newchurch on Saturday night. His owners fear that the theft may have been motivated by the publicity surrounding March of the Penguins, a hit film that is on general release. There was no sign of forced entry to the compound, where Toga lived with his parents and four other penguins.

"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," said Ms Bright.

"If it’s a joke it’s a sick joke. They are putting this bird’s life at risk. Everybody’s hoping against hope that we are going to get that magic phone call that says, ’He’s there, we’ve got him'. It won’t be a very good Christmas for any of us if we can’t find him.

"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 its gender confirmed, but, in accordance with penguin tradition, is referred to as a male, added Ms Bright.

Toga was the first South African jackass penguin to be bred at the island zoo, where only six of the penguins remain. There are 150-200 members of the endangered species in Britain. Toga was destined to be released back to the wild as part of a programme to reintroduce the birds to South Africa.

But zookeepers said yesterday that the theft may have scuppered the bird’s chances of being set free because of the trauma it has suffered.

Toga’s mother, a black-footed penguin called Kyala, has gone off her food and checks her nest several times a day for the missing infant. She spends hours braying for him in the distinctive, donkey-like tones of the jackass penguin.

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