Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill quizzes penguin during trip to Antarctica

Religious leader befriends the bird after it comes up to greet him on a beach

Patriarch Kirill with the penguins (AP)

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has quizzed a penguin he met on a trip to Antarctica.

Patriarch Kirill was visiting Russia’s Bellinghausen Station on King George’s Island when he encountered the bird which came up to him during a trip to a beach.

Asking him “What, little one? What’s troubling you?”, the Patriarch knelt to greet the bold animal which seemed to confront him, holding out its wings and sticking out its neck.

A photograph of the encounter released by the Church quickly went viral with Twitter users engaging in an “impromptu caption contest”, the Guardian reports.

“The patriarch meets Kowalski” said one - referring to a penguin character in the children’s movie Madagascar.

Patriarch Kirill, who is the first head of the Russian church to visit the continent, was visiting the research facility home to 30 scientists to deliver a sermon at its makeshift Orthodox church.

It follows his historic meeting with Pope Francis in Cuba last week.

The meeting was the first time the head of the two churches meet in nearly 1,000 years following the “Great Schism” in 1054.

The pontiff said “we are brothers” as he embraced his Russian counterpart in Cuba’s Havana airport.