Search pressing on for stolen penguin

LONDON -- Police ran down leads and the Royal Navy was on alert yesterday in the search for Toga, an 18-inch-tall baby penguin stolen from an Isle of Wight zoo Saturday night.

''We're all a bit ragged here, to say the least," said Kath Bright, manager of Amazon World Zoo Park, which has received $13,000 in donations to offer as a reward for the safe return of the 9-pound South African jackass penguin.

The theft has become a national soap opera in the British news media, rivaling Elton John's wedding as well as Prime Minister Tony Blair's surprise visit to Iraq. Sky News, which had a grim-faced reporter live at Amazon World, showed photos of Toga throughout the day and urged anyone with information to call in.

''No questions asked," an anchor said. ''We just want to get Toga back to his mum and dad."

The saga took a dark turn early yesterday following anonymous phone calls to Amazon World and to GMTV, a BBC morning television show, in which the caller said he had dumped Toga into Portsmouth harbor in a plastic bag.

Bright said the calls seemed to jibe with a report the zoo received Wednesday night. A boater returning from a trip through Portsmouth harbor told a friend, ''It must be cold out there, I've just seen a penguin." Bright said the friend, realizing it must have been Toga, called the zoo.

Police said they were investigating those reports. A spokesman for the Royal Navy said sailors were keeping their eyes open around the naval dockyards at Portsmouth, south of London.