Tuesday, January 1, 2008

A rare penguin

This Adult Adelie Penguin was observed at a colony on the rocky upper slopes of western edge of Boat Harbour during the land based visit by tourists from the Orion on December 20, 2007. It was located again on Dec. 30 nearby at a lower colony close to Granholm Hut where this photograph was taken.
It is thought that most wildlife exhibiting signs of Leucistic pigmentation or to a more extreme case, Albinism, fail to survive from predation or successfully breed but at least this individual reached adulthood even though while being observed, was quite regularly picked on and harassed by other "normal" Adelies. Brett

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi there! It's the Beige Brigade here - we're keen to lend our support to this poor, ostracised beige penguin. How dare the penguins treat one in beige as a second-class citizen. Please let us know who we need to get in touch with to give the cute little bugger a chance to let his beige feathers dominate: beigehq@beigebrigade.co.nz

Anonymous said...

Hi! I just wanted to let you know that your leucistic penguin picture inspired an entry about penguin trends in my blog. I've also seen your picture turn up in several different blogs and postings around the internet. It seems this little guy is quite the phenom!