Biologists Puzzled by Yellow Penguin Found on South Georgia Island

The established dress code in the penguin world may be white and black tuxedos but one flashing individual with an à la mode yellow suit is shattering the status quo. Pictures of the unique penguin were taken in December 2019 by a wildlife photographer on a remote island in South Georgia and the pictures were just released the pictures. 

The photographer from Belgium, Yves Adams put down on his Instagram post that 'a penguin walked directly in our direction at the center of the crisis full of Antarctic fur seals, sea elephants, and other king penguins."

(Photo : Pixabay)

King Penguins 

He was at the time overseeing a two-month photography tour through the South Atlantic and halted on South Georgia beach to unpack safety equipment, when he saw swimming towards the shore a fluttering of penguins the unique personality instantly hooked his eye.
The photographer explained " I'd never since heard or seen a yellow penguin. 120,000 birds were there on the beach and there was only this yellow one there when we discovered it, we all went crazy, we kept all the safety equipment and pulled our cameras.

Aptenodytes patagonicus is known as King penguins just like the nearly associated Aptenodytes forsteri (emperor penguin), normally a black and white suit with a yellowish-gold pinch of color on their collar. The Australian Antarctica Program disclosed that the yellow paint is unusual to penguins although not all species possess them. 

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Could It Be that the Penguin is An albino? 

This specific penguin seems to have lost its dark feathers but maintained its yellow ones, which are usually colored by a blackish-brown tint known as melanin. Penguins with unique plumage are moderately scarce, and often can be impossible to specify what leads to the rare colors just by glancing at them. Several unique coloring can be because of diet, disease, injury but a lot of reasons are due to mutations in the bird's genes. 

This kind of mutation can cause, for instance, melanistic penguins whose normally white parts are black and albinistic penguins that don't possess any melanin and thus are white.
The photographer disclosed to the News that the genetic condition in the yellow bird is known as leucism in which only a few of the melanin is lost. 

(Photo : Jean Van der Meulen)

Real Albinos

University of Washington professor and conversation biologist Dee Boersma who was not a part of the tour acknowledged that this penguin is lacking some tint so it is leucistic, real albinos have lost all pigment. Boersma revealed that the bird has a brown head and must have maintained some of the colors, though, others don't agree.    

Arizona State University's integrative behavioral ecologist Kevin McGraw explains that he wouldn't call the bird leucistic because the penguin seems to lack all melanin, "It does look albino from the aspect that it lacks all melanin" in its feet, eyes, and plumage. However, we would still require feather samples for biochemical examination if we intend to unquestionably verify it. Animals can still be albino but though have non-melanin color. 

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