Rare colorless penguin found in Antarctica; see photos – 01/23/2024 – Environment

As white as snow: this is a rare specimen of gentoo penguin without the usual two-tone plumage, due to a genetic variation, which surprised the Chilean Navy team at the Gabriel González Videla base, in Antarctica.

“On January 4th, we had the arrival of a very peculiar penguin, completely white”, reported Hugo Harros, cook at the scientific station located in the port captaincy of Baía Paraíso, in the north of the Antarctic peninsula.

At the base, 14 people live among a colony of thousands of these birds, scientifically known as Papuan Pygoscelisrecognizable by their beautiful black upper color, with white touches on the belly and over the eyes.

However, the specimen seen “was completely different from the others”, highlighted Harros, a 33-year-old non-commissioned officer, who is on a four-month mission on the white continent until March.

“This penguin had leucism,” he added, referring to a genetic variation that partially or completely affects the color of an animal’s skin, feathers or coat, but which does not make it more sensitive to the sun as occurs in albinism.

Diego Mojica, a marine biologist at the Malpelo Foundation, who is accompanying a Colombian Navy Antarctic mission aboard the scientific vessel ARC Simón Bolívar, explains that leucism “is the product of a recessive gene that is apparently hereditary.”

“In a certain percentage of thousands of penguins, an individual may be born” with this exceptional condition, he highlights.

In videos recorded by Harros, it is possible to see the bird, with a soft reddish beak and wings and whitish plumage, walking on the rocks in the middle of its two-color colony.

People at the military base “were very surprised by the encounter we were having,” the noncommissioned officer said. “We quickly wanted to take photos to keep as souvenirs”, highlighted he, also an amateur photographer.

The species Papuan Pygoscelis It has a population of 774 thousand individuals, considered stable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

However, scientists estimate that human activity can have an impact on your health.

In 2022, the discovery of a colony of these penguins in an Antarctic area further south than usual worried conservation bodies about the possible impact of climate change.

Papuans, which can reach around 90 centimeters in height, are considered the fastest penguins underwater, reaching speeds of up to 36 km/h.